Chlorine "We are learning the hard
way that all the time we thought we were preventing epidemics of one
disease‚ we were creating another. Two decades after the start of
chlorinating our drinking water the present epidemic of heart trouble and
cancer began."
- Dr. Joseph M. Price‚ PhD
"'Anyone who has ever swum in a chlorinated pool knows firsthand
the harsh effects that chlorine can have on eyes, skin and
hair. More serious emerging health concerns linked to these
chemicals are "lifeguard lung" and "swimmers asthma," If you regularly swim in chlorinated pools .... read the full article
Chlorine is the most common contaminant that we remove from your water supply. Most
people get a Pure Water Services water filter put in to make the water
“taste good” which is usually chlorine related. There are also some
very serious side effects from chlorinated water and we suggest you discover
for yourself what’s in your drinking water supply.
We are Steve Reynolds and Greg Morgan and we fix your water problems.
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Removal
Yes we can very simply remove chlorine from a single tap in the kitchen up to
filtering the whole house. Please ring us on 0800 787 392 and
say I want chlorine free water in my home now!
Personally we have looked at the information and have decided to remove it from
the incoming water supply at our homes.
Not sure what to do?
We suggest you do your own research regarding chlorine, however with the
overwhelming evidence the choice seems clear to us. As most of NZ drinking
water is chlorinated it is up to you if you want your home chlorine free. Its
another personal responsibility decision.
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Information on Chlorine
Chlorine was first added to a community water system in 1908 in Chicago to
remove bacteria and pathogens that cause waterborne disease such as Cholera and
Typhoid fever. Prior to chlorination, cities had death tolls of 1 in 1000
people from Typhoid alone. Chlorine has been used to disinfect municipal water
for over 100 years and has had positive effects on eradicating Typhoid and
other water borne diseases.
In the 1970's it was discovered that chlorine, when added to water, forms
Trihalomethanes (chlorinated by-products) by combining with certain naturally
occurring organic matter such as vegetation and algae. When looking at your
water report be sure to look for trihalomethanes and halo acetic acids, another
by-product of chlorination.
In 1992 the American Journal of Public Health published a report that showed a
15% to 35% increase in certain types of cancer for people who consume
chlorinated water. This report also stated that much of these effects were due
to showering in chlorinated water. Up to half of your chlorine consumption in a
day is in the shower. (through open skin pores)
The National Cancer Institute estimates cancer risks for people who consume
chlorinated water to be up to 93% higher than for people who do not. The
effects of consuming chlorinated water have been debated for decades. However,
most experts now agree that there are some significant risks related to
consuming chlorine and chlorinated by-products in drinking water.
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"One common factor among women with breast cancer
is that they all have 50-60% higher levels of these chlorination by-products
(THMs) in their fat tissue than women without breast cancer..."
BreastCancerFund.org
"Up to 2/3 of the harmful effects of chlorine are due to inhalation and skin
absorption while showering."
- The American Journal Of Public Health
Chlorine, added as an inexpensive and effective drinking water disinfectant, is
also a known poison to the body. It is certainly no coincidence that chlorine
gas was used with deadly effectiveness as a weapon in the First World War. This
gas was known to severely burn the lungs and other body tissues when inhaled;
it is no less powerful when ingested by mouth. Each day, as we use unfiltered
tap water, we are effectively pouring bleach into our water before we drink it.
It is important to note here that drinking chlorinated the water is not the
only way to get THMs into the body. The use of hot water for washing hands and
bathing or showering causes THMs to vaporize so that they can be inhaled and
then go directly into the bloodstream through the lungs . Showering with
chlorinated water is probably the greatest exposure route. The disinfectant
byproducts mentioned above occur with minute levels of organic molecules
present in the water.
There's no question that our public water supplies must be disinfected, but
it's also clear that we need to remove these chemicals before we consume them
in our homes.
The good news is that it's easy to do.
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More on Chlorine
What happens when you drink chlorinated water, mixing it with saliva and
stomach solution that is very rich in nitrogen-containing organic molecules
that can react with chlorine? Do any similarly toxic byproducts get formed
right in your own stomach?
It turns out that this question was studied in the early 90s. Chlorine
isn’t simply oxidized to a chloride ion. It is a very reactive molecule
(thus its disinfecting properties) and it does react with molecules in your
stomach. Chlorinated water reacted with the various amino acids forming organic
chloramines. The toxicity of these compounds isn’t clear, but the above
cited results might include not just the effects of disinfection byproducts
made at the water treatment plant, but also those made right inside the people
drinking the chlorinated water.
When the EPA conducted a 2-year rat and mice study of chlorinated and
chloraminated water they found higher incidence of mononuclear cell leukemia in
female F344/N rats at mid- and high-dose levels for both
• chlorine (leukemia rates: control, 8/50; low-dose, 7/50; mid-dose,
19/51; high-dose, 16/50) and
• chloramines (leukemia rates: control 8/50; low dose, 11/50; mid dose,
15/50; and high dose, 16/50) .
No other lesions or neoplasms were found that were clearly associated with the
drinking water in the male rats or the male or female mice, so this evidence
was called “equivocal.” Immune suppression (reduced spleen weights,
macrophage activity, and antibody production) was also seen when rats were
given drinking water containing chlorine or monochloramine at levels much lower
than the EPA 2-year study.
How do these high-dose short-term studies correlate to our experience with
chronic low-dose exposures? The cited studies on bladder cancer and colon
cancer are part of the answer. Chlorine and chloramine are both highly reactive
substances that do not belong in drinking water.
So, the bottom line with chlorine is that it kills germs, but it is a highly
reactive chemical that generates potentially carcinogenic compounds in the
water or in your body. It needs to be removed from the water before drinking
it.
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