A demonstration that “second‐order”; chlororganics might, in part, be responsible for the BOD reduction that is observed upon chlorination of wastewater has been hampered by the inability to devise an experiment that is not complicated by other contributing factors. The current study compares the BOD enhancement for parent organic systems (phenols, benzoic acids, and anilines) against the BOD values obtained from those chlororganics known to be produced from the parent during disinfection. The investigation supports the hypothesis that these chlorinated organic materials are not readily degraded during the test period and, therefore, will not provide an appropriate contribution to the overall BOD value that is obtained.