| Chlorine
- Our deadly friend
Products
that remove Chlorine
Why
is drinking water chlorinated?
Drinking water is disinfected with chlorine to kill micro-organisms
such as bacteria and viruses that can cause serious illnesses
and deaths. The chlorination of drinking water has virtually
eliminated typhoid fever, cholera and many other waterborne
diseases from the western world and represents one of the
greatest achievements of public health protection. Without
adequate disinfection, the health risks from micro-organisms
would far outweigh the risks from Trihalomethanes (chlorination
byproducts) or THMs.
Chlorine is widely used
in the water treatment industry as a means of ensuring that
the water supply into our houses is safe to drink. Without
chlorine in our water many of us would get a lot sicker than
just a stomach upset occasionally. However, there's enough
evidence to suggest we should seriously consider removing
it at the point of use.
I am pregnant. Should
I stop drinking my tap water?
It is very important to maintain fluid intake during pregnancy.
Based on the current state of knowledge, the potential risks
of adverse pregnancy outcomes associated with drinking water
containing THMs are much lower than the risks of serious illness
and death that could result from consuming drinking water
that has not been properly disinfected. If, however, you decide
to reduce your exposure to THMs from drinking water, options
include using a water filter containing activated carbon or
aerating tap water in a blender.
Which
communities have the highest/lowest levels of THMs?
Levels of THMs and other disinfection byproducts
are generally highest in treated water from sources with high
organic matter content, such as rivers and lakes. Lower levels
of THMs are usually found when the source water is ground
water.
The following
are just an indication of the concerns about chlorine that
are out there if you scratch the surface.
This
summary of information was extracted from:
"guidelines
for drinking water"
2nd ed. Vol
1 Recomendations. Geneva. World Health Organisation. (WHO)
1993 p.95
Chlorine dioxide
is a strong oxidizing agent that is added to water as a disinfectant
and to control taste and odour. Chlorine dioxide rapidly decomposes
into chlorite, chloride, and chlorate.
Chlorine dioxide
has been shown to impair neurobehavioural and neurological
development in rats exposed perinatally. Significant depression
of thyroid hormones has also been observed in rats and monkeys
exposed to chlorine dioxide in drinking-water studies.
Here's
a few tit-bits about chlorine
Chloramine can harm kidney dialysis patients,
fish in aquariums and businesses or industries that use treated
water. The ongoing questions about chloramine’s safety
led the county to dive into the controversy.
“We believe an impartial, medical evaluation of chloramine
is warranted,” said Mark Church, president of the Board
of Supervisors. “Although chloramine has been around
for decades, the extent to which it is potentially harmful
to certain people is still unknown.smdailyjournal.org/article.
Breast
cancer, which now effects one in every eight women in North
America, has been linked to the accumulation of chlorine compounds
in the breast tissue. A study carried out in Hartford Connecticut,
the first of it’s kind in North America, found that, “women
with breast cancer have 50% to 60% higher levels of organochlorines
(chlorination byproducts) in their breast tissue than women
without breast cancer.”
According to the
U.S. Council Of Environmental Quality, “Cancer risk among
people drinking chlorinated water is 93% higher than among
those whose water does not contain chlorine.”
Dr. Joseph Price
wrote a highly controversial book in the late sixties titled
Coronaries/Cholesterol/Chlorine
and concluded that nothing can negate the incontrovertible
fact, the basic cause of atherosclerosis and resulting entities
such as heart attacks and stroke, is chlorine.” Dr. Price
later headed up a study using chickens as test subjects, where
two groups of several hundred birds were observed throughout
their span to maturity. One group was given water with chlorine
and the other without. The group raised with chlorine, when
autopsied, showed some level of heart or circulatory disease
in every specimen, the group without had no incidence of disease.
The group with chlorine under winter conditions, showed outward
signs of poor circulation, shivering, drooped feathers and
a reduced level of activity. The group without chlorine grew
faster, larger and displayed vigorous health. This study was
well recepted in the poultry industry and is still used as
a reference today. As a result, most large poultry producers
use dechlorinated water.
Taking long hot showers
is a health risk, according to research presented in Anaheim,
California, at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.
"Showers - and to a lesser extent baths -
lead to a greater exposure to toxic chemicals contained in
water supplies than does drinking the water. The chemicals
evaporate out of the water and are inhaled. They can also
spread through the house and be inhaled by others. House holders
can receive 6 to 100 times more of the chemical by breathing
the air around showers and bath than they would by drinking
the water."
“Although
concentrations of these carcinogens (THMs) are low, it is
precisely these low levels that cancer scientists believe
are responsible for the majority of human cancers in the United
States“. The Environmental Defense Fund
NEW SCIENTIST
18 September 1986 Ian Anderson
"Studies indicate the
suspect chemicals can also be inhaled and absorbed through
the skin during showering and bathing."
"Ironically, even the
Chlorine widely used to disinfect water produces Carcinogenic
traces."
"Though 7 out of 1 0 Americans drink chlorinated water,
its safety over the long term is uncertain."
"Drinking chlorinated water may as much as double the
risk of the Bladder Cancer, which strikes 40,000 people a
year."
U.S. NEWS &
WORLD REPORT –July 29 1991
Dr. John Andelman, Ph.D..
"A long, hot shower
can be dangerous. The toxic chemicals are inhaled in high
concentrations."
BOTTOM LINE/August
87
Dr. John Andelman, Ph.D..
"On one hand, chlorination
has freed civilization from the constant dangers of waterborne
epidemics. On the other hand in the mid-70s scientists discovered
that chlorination could create carcinogens in water."
"80% of the population drinks chlorinated water."
"There was a higher incidence of cancer of the esophagus,
rectum, breast, and larynx and of Hodgkins Disease among those
drinking chlorinated surface waters."
"Volatile organics can evaporate from water in a shower
or bath."
"Conservative calculations indicate that inhalation exposures
can be as significant as exposure from drinking the water,
that is, one can be exposed to just as much by inhalation
during a shower as by drinking 2 liters of water a day."
"People who shower frequently could be exposed through
ingestion, inhalation and/or dermal absorption."
IS YOUR WATER
SAFE TO DRINK?
Consumer Reports Books
"Skin absorption of contaminant
has been underestimated and ingestion may not constitute the
sole or even primary route of exposure."
AMERICAN JQURNAL
OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Dr. Halina Brown
"Showering is suspected
as the primary cause of elevated levels of chloroform in nearly
every home because of the chlorine in the water."
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY
Dr. Lance Wallace
"A Professor of Water
Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh claims that exposure
to vaporized chemicals in the water supplies through showering,
bathing, and inhalation is 100 times greater than through
drinking the water."
"As chlorine is added to kill pathogenic microorganisms,
the highly reactive chlorine combines with fatty acids and
carbon fragments to form a variety of toxic compounds, which
comprise about 30% of the chlorination by-products."
"During the mid-1970s monitoring efforts began to identify
widespread toxic contamination of the nation's drinking water
supplies, epidemiological studies began to suggest a link
between ingestion of toxic chemicals in the water and elevated
cancer mortality risks. Since those studies were completed
a variety of additional studies have strengthened the statistical
connection between consumption of toxins in water and elevated
cancer risks. Moreover, this basic concern has been heightened
by other research discoveries.”
THE NADER REPORT
- TROUBLED WATERS ON TAP
Center For Study of Responsive Law
"The National Academy
of Sciences estimate that 200 to 1 000 people die in the United
States each year from cancers caused by ingesting the contaminants
in water. The major health threat posed by these pollutants
is far more likely to be from their inhalation as air pollutants.
The reason that emissions are high is that because water droplets
dispersed by the shower head have a larger surface-to-value
ratio than water streaming into the bath.
"SCIENCE
NEWS, VOL. 130
Janet Raloff
"The cause of atherosclerosis
and resulting heart attacks and strokes is none other than
the ubiquitous chlorine in our drinking water."
CORONARIES/CHOLESTEROL/CHLORINE
Dr. J.M. Price, M-D
"In the vast majority
of cases where germ-free water is required whether for public
supply, or in the swimming pool, the process of disinfection
will involve the use of chlorine in one form or another."
CHEMISTRY AND CONTROL OF MODERN CHLORINATION
Dr. A.T. Palin, Ph.D. (O.B.E.)
"Chlorine gas was despicably
used during WWI. When the war was over, the use Of Chlorine
was diverted to poisoning germs in our drinking water. All
water supplies throughout the country were chlorinated. The
combination of chlorine (when in drinking water) and animal
fats results in atherosclerosis, heart attacks, and death."
WATER CAN UNDERMINE
YOUR HEALTH
Dr. N.W. Walker, D.S.
"Chlorine is the
greatest crippler and killer of modern times. While it prevented
epidemics of one disease, it was creating another. Two decades
ago, after the start of chlorinating our drinking water in
1904. The present epidemic of heart trouble, cancer and senility
began."
SAGINAW HOSPITAL
Dr. J.M. Price, MD.
"Cancer risk among people
drinking chlorinated water is 93% higher than among those
whose water does not contain chlorine."
U.S. COUNCIL
OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
"Drinking tap water
that is chlorinated is hazardous, if not deadly to your health."
HEALTHY WATER
FOR A LONGER LIFE
Dr. Martin Fox
"Known carcinogens are
found in drinking water as a direct consequence of the practice
of chlorination. A long established public health practice
for the disinfection of drinking water."
MUNICIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL
RESEARCH LABORATORY
Francis T. Mayo, Director
"…A positive association
between consumption of chlorinated by-products in drinking
water and bladder and rectal cancer in humans ".
Research from
Harvard University and the Medical College of Wisconsin
"Chlorinated water
contains chemical compounds called trihalomethanes which are
carcinogens resulting from the combination of chlorine with
compounds in water. These chemicals, also known as organochlorides,
do not degrade very well and are generally stored in the fatty
tissues of the body (breast, other fatty areas, mother's milk,
blood and semen). Organochlorides can cause mutations by altering
DNA, suppress immune system function and interfere with the
natural controls of cell growth.
"Chlorine has been documented
to aggravate asthma, especially in those children who make
use of chlorinated swimming pools. Several studies also link
chlorine and chlorinated by-products to a greater incidence
of bladder, breast and bowel cancer as well as malignant melanoma.
One study even links the use of chlorinated tap water to congenital
cardiac anomalies.
"Anything you can
do to filter tap and shower water that eliminates or even
minimizes chlorine would certainly be helpful and possibly
curative for some immune system problems. The use of at source
water filtration devices is increasingly popular and affordable".
Numerous scientific
studies report that chlorinated tap water is a skin irritant
and can be associated with rashes like eczema. Apparently
chlorinated water can destroy polyunsaturated fatty acids
and vitamin E in the body while generating toxins capable
of free radical damage (oxidation). This might explain why
supplementation of the diet with essential fatty acids like
flax seed oil, evening primrose oil, borage oil and antioxidants
like vitamin E, selenium and others helps so many cases of
eczema and dry skin.
Chlorine in shower water
also has a very negative cosmetic effect, robbing our skin
and hair of moisture and elasticity, resulting in a less vibrant
and youthful appearance. Anyone who has ever swam in a chlorinated
pool can relate to the harsh effects that chlorine has on
the skin and hair. What’s surprising is that we commonly find
higher levels of chlorine in our tap water than is recommended
safe for swimming pools.
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