活性炭技术是净化微污染源水的有效手段，但其化学安全性值得关注。研究发现，活性炭出水中微量有机污染物仍有一定含量，AOC浓度仍达211 μg/L，并可检测到新的有机化合物，去除效果受炭种、源水水质和工艺运行等因素影响；活性炭对消毒副产物的去除效果不稳定，生物活性炭对卤乙酸前质（HAAs）表现出较好去除效果，但对三卤甲烷前质（THMs）的去除效果有限，去除效果与活性炭类型和工艺运行参数等因素有关；活性炭技术可以去除大部分臭氧化副产物的溴酸盐和甲醛，但水厂用纯氧生产臭氧时，活性炭的处理情况有所不同。活性炭易于吸附微囊藻毒素，微生物对藻毒素也有降解作用，仍应注意源水水质情况。另外，活性炭能有效去除致突变活性物质，即使在活性炭吸附TOC饱和后，仍能显著地去除致突变活性物质。

GAC will be effective for the advanced treatment in drinking water due to the aggravating micro-pollution of drinking water source in China, but the chemical security of GAC filter effluent should be taken into account. It was proved that the micro-organic matter in the GAC filter effluent still was in a higher level of quantity, such as AOC density (211 μg/L). And some new organic matter was tested in the effluent. The effects of carbon characters, source water quality and operation of AC process on the removal results of micro-organic matter were investigated. The GAC process removed effectively the disinfection by-products, while not steadily sometimes. The BAC process also removed the HAAs precursor; but it was limited to remove the THMs precursor. The adsorptive ability of AC to remove disinfection by-products was limited, depending on the characters of AC and the one in drinking water. AC could remove the majority of ozonation by-products including inorganic by-products (formaldehyde) and organic by-products (bromate). However, when the plant used purify oxygen to produce ozone, the removal effect was different from bench scale. And BAC was used for removal of microcystins (MC), which was influenced by source water quality. Most part of MC was degraded by microorganism, other part of MC was adsorbed by AC. In addition, AC removed the Ames mutagens effectively to ensure the safety of drinking water, even if AC adsorbed the total organic carbon to the maximum.