Water
for Living
Frequently
Asked Questions About Healthy Water
Why is chlorine added to tap water?
Chlorine (klor' én)
n. A greenish-yellow, poisonous, gaseous chemical
element with a disagreeable odor, used in bleaching, water purification, etc.
Webster's
"Chlorine has a strong, distinctive odor, is irritating to the respiratory tract, and is poisonous if ingested or inhaled." Mosby's Medical And Nursing Dictionary
Chlorine is added to public water supplies
to kill small (microscopic) living organisms, such as bacteria and
disease-causing organisms such as cholera, typhoid, and others that cause
infectious intestinal diseases. When chlorine was first added to public drinking
water supplies in the early 1900's, it was heralded as a 'miracle', because it
greatly reduced the incidence of water-borne disease, which was at that time,
the leading cause of death in
Quotes from Respected Authorities: About Chlorine & Tap Water
"Chlorine has so many dangers it should
be banned. Cancer, heart trouble, premature senility… a
premature end to cell life and [premature] death.
-Dr. Herbert Schwartz,
In his book, Coronaries/Cholesterol/Chlorine, Joseph M. Price, M.D. presents
startling evidence that toxic byproducts created by combining chlorine and
organic substances such as leaves, weeds, or organic fertilizers, called trihalomethanes, are a "prime causative agents of artherosclerosis and its inevitable result, the heart
attack or stroke."
"Chlorine is the greatest crippler and
killer of modern times. While it prevented epidemics or one disease
[water-borne bacterial diseases], it was creating another [cancer, heart
disease, strokes]."
-Joseph M. Price, M.D. SaginawHospital, author of
"Coronaries/Cholesterol/Chlorine"
"Environmental factors, including
synthetic chemical pollutant exposure, are responsible for approximately 90% of
cancer incidence."
-National Cancer Institute (NCI)
"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."
-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."
-
"One in five Americans drink [or bathe
in] contaminated or inadequately treated water. The most pervasive contaminants
are coliform bacteria, cancer-causing trihalomethanes, radioactive elements, and lead.
-Natural Resources Defense Council
"Although concentrations of these
carcinogens are low...it is precisely these low levels which cancer scientists
believe are responsible for the majority of human cancers in the
-Report Issued By The Environmental Defense Fund
"Known carcinogens are found in
drinking water as a direct consequence of chlorination, a long established
public health practice for the disinfection of
drinking water."
-Municipal Environmental Research Laboratory, Francis T. Mayo, Director
"Chlorine itself is not believed to be
the problem. Scientists suspect that ...the actual cause of the bladder cancers
is a group of chemicals that form as result of reactions between the chlorine
and natural substances and pollutants in the water." (organic
matter such as leaves and twigs.)
-
"Many water suppliers know of
contamination problems and yet, in a direct break with public trust
responsibilities and with the law, fail to tell their customers of the
problems." "Other water suppliers falsify their water test
results."
-Natural Resources Defense Council, September, 1993.