EcoSphere Technologies Inc. (fka ESPHQ)

[Art2004]

Bromine and bromides fron Wikepedia

APPARENTLY THE BROMIDES OR BROMINE IN THE DRINKING WATER DOES COME FROM ITS USE IN WELL DRILLING FLUIDS.

At high temperatures, organobromine compounds are easily converted to free bromine atoms, a process which acts to terminate free radical chemical chain reactions. This makes such compounds useful fire retardants and this is bromine's primary industrial use, consuming more than half of world production of the element. The same property allows volatile organobromine compounds, under the action of sunlight, to form free bromine atoms in the atmosphere which are highly effective in ozone depletion. This unwanted side-effect has caused many common volatile brominated organics like methyl bromide, a pesticide that was formerly a large industrial bromine consumer, to be abandoned.

*Remaining uses of bromine compounds are in well-drilling fluids,*

as an intermediate in manufacture of organic chemicals, and in film photography