Chlorine Poisoning From Your Tap Water

Disinfecting public water with chlorine started back in the 19th century

Chlorine is a chemical that prevents bacteria from growing. It was the best way at the time to prevent dangerous outbreaks of water-borne diseases. The reason adding chlorine to water for disinfection today isn't because it's the safest or most effective way to disinfect water, it's the cheapest. It all started for America more than a century ago in 1904, in New Jersey. Where public drinking water was chlorinated for the first time.

 
Backed by the the government, chlorination was able to effectively decrease water born diseases such as typhoid, cholera and dysentery by killing the bacteria. While chlorine has been hailed as the savior against cholera and various other water-borne diseases and rightfully so, it's disinfectant qualities and economy of production have allowed communities and whole cities to grow and prosper by providing disease-free tap water to homes and industry. The people who have grown-up on tap water, believe the taste of chlorine signifies purity and safety, well, not necessarily so. Dr. Herbert Schwartz of Cumberland County College in Vineman, N.J. says, "Chlorine has so many dangers it should be banned. Putting chlorine in the water supply is like starting a time bomb. Cancer, heart trouble, premature senility, and physical impairments, are conditions attributable to chlorine treated water supplies. It's making us grow old before our time by producing other symptoms of aging like hardening of the arteries." Nowadays, chlorine is injected into drinking water by two ways. It is either injected directly by bubbling chlorine gas into the reservoir of drinking water or it is induced by adding calcium hypo chloride, "bleaching powder," to water. The chlorine in water is extremely reactive and quickly kills the bacteria and other living micro-organisms, thus disinfecting the drinking water.

Chlorine poisoning occurs when someone swallows or breathes in (inhales) chlorine. Chlorine reacts with water, in and out of the body to form hydrochloric acid and hypochlorous acid. Both are extremely poisonous. The residual free chlorine present in any water also remains highly reactive and reacts with the organic matter naturally present in the water to form highly Carcinogenic (cancer causing) Chloro Carbons and Tri-Halo Methanes (THM's) which are notorious for their mutagenic and carcinogenic properties even in trace amounts like 5-10 ppb, that's parts per billion. A recent Japanese research study revealed that adding chlorinated drinking water to milk, or fruit juices, or for cooking food would result in the formation of Mutagen "X" or "MX". MX is formed by the reaction of chlorine with organic compounds present in the food materials, which is 100% carcinogenic. Eating those foods can lead to irreversible mutations in the persons DNA leading to cancer. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has published a case-control study showing that some birth defects like spina bifida, or neural tube defects, are associated with total trihalomethanes (THM's) ingested from drinking water. Neural tube defects are serious ones in which the spinal cord is not properly enclosed by bone.
 

A state-wide study in New Jersey found a doubled risk of neural tube defects among those with the highest exposures to THM's. Chlorinated water can also destroy polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E in the body while generating toxins capable of radical damage. These chemicals in chlorinated water, known as organo-chlorides, 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. These stored chemicals can cause mutations by altering your DNA, and suppressing your immune system function, interfering with the natural controls of cell growth, leading to breast cancer and bladder cancer. Not only does the chlorine kill bad bacteria but it also kills the good bacteria in our intestines needed for healthy digestion. 
Worse news is, that chlorine treatment does not absolutely ensure that by the time our drinking water comes out of our home faucet it is free of unhealthy microorganisms. Dangerous bacteria like e-coli and coliform are still found in chlorinated tap water on occasion. When this happens it's primarily due to problems related to the treatment system itself or to the transport of the water to our homes.

Now, after all my blustering in my article "Bottled vs. Tap Water" to try and get you all off bottled water, you have to know by now, that along with my advise to drink tap water that  I highly recommend some type of chlorine water filter at the point-of-use. Either at your water faucet or a filtered pitcher or a water bottle with a filter that will not only filter chlorine as well as fluoride along with unhealthy micro-organisms, and many other contaminants, like antibiotics, and other pharmaceuticals that could end up in your drinking water. "Nourish A Life" has one of the most ecological, highly efficient line of water filters, for home or travel. From pitchers, to personal bottles, to shower filters to inexpensive in line filters for your sink. Their filters not only remove chlorine, but also fluoride, metals, and medicines. Also their containers are BPA free.

Now, what most people don't realize is that chlorine in drinking water is not the only problem. Taking a hot bath or shower even be more dangerous than drinking it, because more chlorine is absorbed directly through your skin, and inhaled in the steam from your shower, than is taken in from drinking 8 glasses of tap water. Not kidding, the heat and steam opens the pores allowing a high absorption of chlorine and other chemicals. Steam from a shower can contain 20 times the concentration of chlorine as tap water. Inhalation of chlorine vapors from hot showers are a suspected cause of bronchitis and asthma. A report in the American Journal of Public Health links chlorine to, increases of cancer, skin irritations and asthma as well. They said that "up to 2/3 of the harmful exposure to chlorine was due to skin absorption and inhalation of chlorine from shower water." The U.S. EPA recently wrote, "Due to chlorine, and showering, virtually every home in America also has a detectable level of chloroform gas in the air." Chloroform is strong respiratory irritant. Since the shower is warm or hot, our pores are wide open, and our skin easily absorbs toxic levels of the chemicals.


I know this seems hard to believe, but it's a FACT, none the less. Then there is the cosmetic effect of chlorine. Everyone has spent too much time in a high volume pool, like in Palm Springs, Las Vegas, or wherever you vacation. When you get out you find the chlorine in the pool strips the protective oils from our skin, leaves it white and flaky and our hair ends up  like straw, your eyes burn and you see little stars. Or we've all sat in the hot tub too long got up to leave with a tiny headache and a little woozy. Well that's not all from the wine. It's more likely from the chlorine and chloroform gas in that fog hovering over the pool. Remember Chloroform is what they used to sedate soldiers during the civil war when they had to amputate limbs.

 So while chlorine causes noticeable drying and wrinkling of the skin, dries and makes our hair brittle, burns the heck out of our eyes, you have to remind yourself, what happens when you put tap water into a fish bowl, and add fish? ALL THE FISH DIE! So then, why are you drinking, showering, washing your hands, and brushing your teeth in a chemical that kills another organism in a matter of minutes? While chlorine may still be important at the water treatment facility, because municipalities are too cheap to use a safer solution, for you and your families healths sake, it absolutely should be removed from your water once it enters your home. In your shower you can easily install a screw-on, filter shower head, also try a, Personal Water Bottle filtration system, or Counter Drip Pitcher, or in line sink filter system. Just click one of the "Nourish A Life" banners on either side of this article for more information on an economical solution. Chlorination of public water may have started over 100 years ago, but now, it's time to remove it from your diet. Good Luck...


This Is How Fast You Absorb Chlorine

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