Water filtration: Cut Your cancer risk

Chlorine. We’ve all smelled its pungent odour at the swimming pool or tasted it in our water. It is widely used for cleaning and sterilisation, and for many it is a normal part of every-day life and given little thought.

But is it really harmless? Should humans be soaking in it, swimming in it or ingesting it? Should water filtration systems be installed in our homes to protect us from chlorine? These are all good questions – ones that merit a closer investigation.

Cholera Then. Cancer Now?

The addition of chlorine to water works has been the policy for decades and is credited with greatly reducing the incidence of water-borne illness and death around the world caused by diseases such as cholera and typhoid. However, recent studies have linked the ingestion of chlorinated water to health problems including bladder and rectal cancers.

In the Morris Study, a pooling of information from 10 different research projects – a “meta-analysis” – on chlorinated water and cancer, scientists at Harvard University and the Medical College of Wisconsin in the United States found that byproducts from the disinfection process could be linked to 15 percent of rectal cancers in the United States and 9 percent of bladder cancers. The analysis was featured in a 1992 edition of The American Journal of Public Health. Its statistics are still cited in the heated debate about the safety of chlorination.

The risk of drinking chlorinated water typically is the first thing that comes to mind in discussions about exposure to chlorine. However, dermal absorption and inhalation are two other risk factors. The skin can absorb these chemicals, and fumes can be inhaled during a bath, pool workout, or during a steamy shower in your own home.

Do You Smell Danger?

The smell of chlorine can be detected at 3.5 ppm; however, the recommended maximum limit of chlorine exposure is 0.5 ppm or less, according to the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety. Inhalation of chlorine gas at 1,000 ppm or higher can be fatal. This high concentration typically would occur in an accidental exposure in an industrial setting.

Lung exposure at this extreme level causes life-threatening pulmonary swelling, shock and asphyxia. In lesser degrees, exposure can make you susceptible to bronchitis and other chronic conditions, according to Environment Writer, a website published by the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting.

Water UK, a public relations agency for water industry and waste water service suppliers, admits that an additional “disadvantage of chlorine is that it can react with natural organic matter in the water to produce trihalomethanes and other halogenated disinfection byproducts.” The agency, however, defends its use of chlorine, stating that “the amount of chlorine in water leaving treatment works in the UK is safe and well within the World Health Organisation guidelines for drinking-water quality.”

If You Can’t Pronounce It…

Disinfection byproducts are produced when chlorine interacts with naturally occurring organic substances found in water. Among these byproducts are trihalomethanes (THMs) such as tribromomethane and trichloromethane (chloroform), bromodichloromethane and di-bromochloromethane.

Whilst these chemicals may have industrial use, they can cause “adverse health effects, principally on the central nervous system,” says public health guidance notes published by Queensland Government Public Health Services. Breathing in THM-laced vapour from chlorinated water and direct skin contact “can have adverse local and systemic effects,” the Queensland pamphlet said.

Chloroform can be transported through water pipes with chlorinated water and be released during a steamy, high-pressure shower. People can inhale this toxic byproduct or absorb it through their skin. Rutgers University scientists say a daily 10-minute shower would increase the risk of cancer by 122 cases per million people – a “significant risk,” reported Melissa Hendricks in Johns Hopkins Magazine.

Wholehouse Filtration

Chloroform is considered a probable human carcinogen. It has been shown to manifest liver and kidney tumors in lab animals. Exposure to chloroform or other similar toxins could be remedied by a wholehouse water filtration system, which removes these threats. Instead of a potential toxic soup, you can breathe a little easier (literally) and know that there’s pure water coming out of your tap. Installing an adequate ventilation system or opening a window would further limit exposure to indoor air pollution.

Select, the on-line journal of the National Sports Medicine Institute of the UK, published findings in December 2003, linking consistent and frequent exposure to chlorinated water in swimming pools to asthma and other health issues. It presents “a serious risk to individuals who are susceptible to respiratory reactions as well as other illnesses. The intensity of the stimulus may be relatively low but with time, even years, health problems develop.”

The authors of this sports medicine article cited numerous international studies that indicated compromised pulmonary function, increased allergic sensitisation, cellular immune system disorders, bronchial hyper responsiveness, and even eroded dental enamel in those routinely exposed to chlorinated water and its fumes.

Once respiration function is impaired in swimmers, pulmonary absorption of THM would become progressively more pronounced, said the researchers. “When an obstructive airway disorder is established, swimmers are not as efficient in emptying their airways as are people who do not have airway obstruction. If airway/blood exchange of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide are more efficient than that of THM, then THM would accumulate in the alveoli over time… The rate of absorption would consequently increase.”

What’s Coming Out of Your Tap?

There is speculation that dermal exposure to chlorinated water and its carcinogenic agents could also have an effect on the long-term development of skin melanoma, according to a study in the 1990s by Patricia Nelemans of the St. Anna Hospital Department of Dermatology in The Netherlands.

More immediately, chlorine has corrosive properties when it comes in contact with moist tissues like the eyes, nose and throat. Hydrogen separates from water in these moist areas, causing stinging to the tissue when hydrochloric or hypochlorous acid are formed. Free radicals are also precipitated, promoting further damage. Actual deep chemical burns can occur with profound exposure. Coughing, a runny nose and a sore throat are common airway irritations, according to the Toxipedia website.

A 1998 California Department of Health Study determined that pregnant women with high exposure to chlorinated drinking water nearly doubled their risk of miscarriage, from 9.5 percent to 16 percent. This study has met with mixed reviews and has prompted further study of the purported risks.

Trivia, but not Trivial

A million tonnes of chlorine are produced annually in the UK, says The Women’s Environmental Network Trust based in London. Most of it is used in industry to produce organochlorines, but about 2.5 percent of it is used to disinfect water.

Chlorine is used to make polychloride, which is turned into clear plastic bottles. An estimated 13 billion plastic bottles are disposed of each year in the UK, with only one in five being recycled. That contributes significantly to our impact on the environment, says a Carbon Trust study, which calculated that the annual carbon footprint of an average Briton is 10.92 tonnes of CO2. Unfortunately, studies show that some bottled water is no cleaner than what comes out of the tap, and it costs a whole lot more. Brits run up a £1.68 billion tab on bottled water annually!

“The dynamic growth of chlorine chemistry during the 1950s and 1960s represents a decisive mistake in 20th century industrial development,” the German Council of Experts for Environmental Issues think tank has stated. “(It’s one) which would not have occurred had our present knowledge of environmental damage and health risks due to chlorine chemistry then been available.”

For more information about chlorinated water and its adverse effects on health, visit the Water and Environment Journal website at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120024698/abstract.

To learn more about home water filtration options, go to: www.glacierwatersystems.com