The Deep Mystery that is our Water – What We Do Know?

Just what have we been drinking and bathing in our entire lives? The true answer is that nobody knows.
Water is nature’s solvent that dissolves essential minerals so highly as to make them bioavailable to living things. The problem is that water dissolves almost everything and almost everything is either landfilled or flushed down a toilet where it enters the groundwater table. This vast network is what feeds the water sources of every town.

We can’t smell or taste any of these highly dissolved chemicals, metals, or chlorides that can be toxic to our immune systems.

CLEAN AND HEALTHY WATER

Water is the most basic element essential for survival. Healthy water is vital to maintain the proper functioning of our bodies and its systems from skin and organ integrity to a healthy immune system to longevity.

Most know that water is essential and vital, but they aren’t confident in their knowledge of whether their water is healthy or not. Life’s experiences lead most to distrust tap water and we often resort to drinking from the fridge filter or bottled water. This response represents over 90% of my over 2000 customer consultations.

This blog will mainly focus on something that is common in all municipal water. However, it is only the tip of the iceberg when considering the common presence of hundreds or thousands of other toxins, carcinogens, and contaminants. We will focus on disinfectants added to all municipal water supplies – primarily the only two types allowed by the EPA – chlorine and chloramine.

Disinfection of the water is the last process of any water treatment plant. This typically comes after first making sure the water is not corrosive by adjusting the PH and then reducing iron and manganese from the source water. Chlorine or chloramine is then added to kill the bacteria and pathogens which cause sickness. None of these processes remove toxins and contaminants already in the water. In fact, they only add to the list.

Chlorine

Chlorine is the most common disinfectant used. It is the most powerful and the most unstable as well – meaning that it dissipates rapidly. With a boiling point of -21 degrees Fahrenheit chlorine wants to go into the air and particularly into the steam we breathe in the shower.

Although chlorine is strongest and most effective at controlling microorganisms and pathogens that cause diseases such as cholera, e coli, dysentery, and typhoid, it is not without problems.

Chlorine is an oxidant that reacts quickly with both organic and inorganic elements in the water. When chlorine reacts with these volatile organic compounds (VOCs) it can mutate into harmful disinfection byproducts known as trihalomethanes (THMs) and halo acetic acids (HAAs). THMs are one of the few regulated toxins because they are 1000s of times more toxic to our immune system than chlorine.

Studies find the use of chlorine in our water to be harmful to our health.

The American Journal of Public Health recently linked chlorine to significant increases in certain types of cancer and stated that “Up to 2/3 of our harmful exposure comes from inhalation of steam while showering.”

The U.S. EPA recently released a report that said, “Virtually every home in America has a detectable level of chloroform gas in the air due to chlorine and showering.”

In the January/February 1987 issue of Health Freedom News, this quote: “The drinking of chlorinated water has finally been officially linked to an increased incidence of colon cancer. An epidemiologist at Oak Ridge Associated Universities completed a study of colon cancer victims and non-cancer patients and concluded that the drinking of chlorinated water for 15 years or more was conducive to a high rate of colon cancer.”

“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, both mental and physical, conditions are attributable to chlorine treated water supplies. It is making us grow old before our time by producing symptoms of aging such as hardening of the arteries.”

– Dr. Herbert Schwartz, Cumberland County College in Vineland, N.J.

“I am quite convinced, based on this study, that there is an association between cancer and chlorinated water.”

– Robert D. Morris of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee

A Norwegian study of 141,000 births over three years found a 14 per cent increased risk of birth defects in areas with chlorinated water. Scientists have already found an association between chlorine and an increased risk of bowel, kidney and bladder cancer, but it is the first time that a link has been found with higher levels of spina bifida.

The U.S. General Accounting Office reports that there are serious deficiencies in water treatment plants in 75% of the states. More than 120 million people (about 50% of the population) may get unsafe water according to a study conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

– Health Freedom News, January/February 1987

“Long-term drinking of chlorinated water appears to increase a person’s risk of developing bladder cancer as much as 80%,” according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Some 45,000 Americans are diagnosed every year with bladder cancer.”

– St. Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press, December 17, 1987

“Almost two decades have passed since known or suspected human carcinogens were first found in municipal water supplies. One of them, chloroform, produced by the chlorination process, exposes millions of Americans. The potential for a major public health problem is unquestionably there, and yet, progress has been slow.”

-Dr. Peter Isacson, M.D., Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Iowa College of Medicine

“Skin absorption of contaminants has been underestimated, and ingestion may not constitute the sole or even primary route of exposure.”

– American Journal of-Public Health – Dr. Halina Brown

“Showering is suspected as the primary cause of elevated of chloroform in nearly every home because of the chlorine in the water. Chloroform [a known carcinogen] levels increase up to 100 times during a ten-minute shower in residential water”

– Environmental Protection Agency – Dr. Lance Wallace

The list goes on and on – it is fair to say that the use of chlorine disinfectant has many positives in protecting people from harmful bacteria but imposes many known health risks with its use.

Chloramine – the increasingly popular and more toxic disinfectant.

Chloramination is the process of disinfecting water using the combination of chlorine and ammonia. Its use has grown since the early 1900s in urbanized and populated metropolitan areas. This is because the EPA needed to find a chlorine-based disinfectant that was more stable and able to kill bacteria throughout the miles of distribution lines. Adding ammonia allows the pathogen killing power of chlorine to last up to 6 times longer but at a lower level of effectiveness.

Benefits of using chloramine.

• Major metropolitan cities can more adequately provide disinfected water to the end user. Smaller towns with high chlorine disinfectant byproducts (THMs) can temporarily come back into compliance levels of THMs by diluting the amount of chlorine with the use of ammonia (chloramine). Ammonia will not mutate into a THM and the overall levels of the towns THM measurements will decrease.
• Chloraminated water also has less unfavorable smell and taste versus chlorinated water.

Negatives associated with the use of chloramine.

• The ammonia used in chloramine is an unregulated toxin proven to be even more harmful to our immune systems than the regulated THMs from chlorine. Although the EPA has extensive test and research reports on the effectiveness of chlorine, the same does not exist with the use of ammonia.

It is interesting to note that chloramine exists in three forms: monochloramine, dichloramine, and trichloramine. The three forms constantly and rapidly shift from one form to another. They vaporize easily out of water that is heated and goes into vapor. All three forms are respiratory irritants, with trichloramine being the most toxic.

• The use of ammonia in chloramine has great impact on the toxicity of these chlorine byproducts. They are not only carcinogenic and cytotoxic, but also genotoxic. These THMs can now also alter human DNA. While the absolute level of THMs may follow the 80 ppb MCL levels, they are far unhealthier to our bodies.
• N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a suspected human carcinogen by-product, has been detected in chloraminated drinking water systems.

Although there are currently no federal regulations for nitrosamines in drinking water in the United States (US), the widespread detection of NDMA in drinking water distribution systems has prompted the California Department of Health Services and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to implement a maximum level of 10ng/L for NDMA in drinking water (MassDEP, 2004; OEHHA (Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), 2006). Furthermore, the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has identified nitrosamines as a group of contaminants highlighted for possible regulatory action soon.

• Chloriminated water also has adverse impact on corrosion levels in the water supply and can impact infrastructure and plumbing/fixture integrity. Kidney dialysis patients should also avoid the use of chloriminated water.

Greatest exposure to chlorine and chloramine:

Chlorine has a much lower boiling point than water and it vaporizes more quickly. Steam in the shower can contain as much as twenty times the level of chlorine compared to water from the tap. The inhalation and absorption of these chemicals from the vapors routes them directly into the bloodstream without benefit of the body’s natural filtration systems.

Summary

Evidence has been stacking up for years about the unhealthy substances to which we unknowingly expose ourselves daily. It is imperative we guard ourselves against the destructive chemicals that serve to compromise our health and wellness.

True Health Water Systems was formed to address these issues and offer a solution for healthy water throughout the whole house. With our system you can now enjoy a long, hot shower with the peace of mind healthy water brings.