Health, Taken Seriously

In order to kill any potential contaminants, almost all municipal water is treated with chlorine. It’s important to purify our drinking water, but unfortunately, we shouldn’t be drinking this chlorine either. Chlorine is listed in the 1990 Clean Air Act as a hazardous pollutant¹. Exposure to chlorine has been linked to gastrointestinal and urinary-tract cancer², and most recently, bladder cancer³. Chlorine also combines with other compounds in the water forming a whole host of chemicals we shouldn’t be consuming. Of course the quantities of chlorine in your tap water are minimal (we’re talking a few drops per hundreds of gallons) but considering that we are not only exposed to chlorine through the water we drink, but also through the water we use throughout the day–from washing dishes to showering–it doesn’t hurt to try to reduce our exposure.

Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to remove chlorine from your tap water. The simplest and cheapest way is to let your drinking water sit in an open container over night. Chlorine is volatile and will evaporate quickly. Consider filling a pitcher with water, store it near your sink, and use it for drinking water. Of course, this only works for water you drink and does take some effort on your part. If you’re willing to spend a little money, you could buy an activated carbon filter. There are ones that attach to your sink or ones that fit into your fridge to filter water as it pours into your glass. Activated carbon filters are inexpensive and in addition to filtering chlorine, many filter other substances too (block carbon is more effective for this than granular). Consumer Reports found that pitcher-filters remove only half the pollutants after a mere 20 gallons of water, making them practically worthless. A filter that mounts onto your faucet, mounts to your pipes under the sink, or is installed into a refrigerator designed to filter water is a better investment. Make sure to change the filter as often as the manufacturer suggests. Tests done by Rodale Product Testing Labs show the in the filters tested, effectiveness of contaminant removal quickly declines after about 75% of the filter’s rated life².

While these filters will remove chlorine from your drinking water, what about the chlorine you’re exposed to from showering and bathing? According to the retailer Lifekind, our bodies can absorb ten times more chlorine during a 15-minute bath or shower than we do by drinking 8 glasses of chlorinated tap water¹. I don’t know if this is true or not, or even how Lifekind conducted its studies to determine this, but knowing that our skin can absorb chemicals and knowing that chlorine quickly vaporizes into a gas we can breath (and certainly chlorine has been well-documented as a lung irritant!), it makes sense that we could absorb at least as much, if not more, chlorine from showering than from drinking tap water. And chlorine is not the only chemical in our warm, moist shower fumes–there may also be other chlorine compounds, like hydrochloric acid and trihalomethanes (or THMs, formed when chlorine combines with natural organic matter in water such as leaves, soil, and silt. According to the EPA, THMs are present in virtually all chlorinated water. One THM, chloroform, is a suspected human carcinogen.²) If you’re interested in removing chlorine and other chlorine compounds from your shower or bath, consider purchasing a dechlorinating shower filter or a bath ball dechlorinator that you drop in the tub for a few minutes before bathing. Of course, good ventilation is also important. When possible, turn on bathroom fans and/or open windows while showering, bathing, running the dishwasher, and hand-washing dishes.

Sites worth visiting:
http://www.friendsofwater.com/No_Chlorine.html
http://www.bidness.com/esd/showering.htm
http://www.mercola.com/1997/archive/cancer_risk.htm
http://www.newstarget.com/021508.html

1. Imus, Deirdre. Green This! Simon & Schuster, 2007.

2. Dadd, Debra. Home Safe Home. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1997.

3. Villanueva, Cristina, et. al. Bladder Cancer and Exposure to Water Disinfection By-Products through Ingestion, Bathing, Showering, and Swimming in Pools. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2007; 165 (2): 148-156.