All posts tagged: Drinking Water

Is Chlorine Safe In Our Drinking Water?

The focus on drinking water has been to eliminate pathogens, and with good reason. According to a study conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council, more than 120 million people (about 50% of the population) may get unsafe water  for consumption. Hence, chlorination of drinking water significantly reduced mortality rates associated with waterborne pathogen. However, research is starting to reveal the risks of over-chlorination. For example, some have claimed that a substantial portion of the cancer risk associated with drinking chlorinated water; duration of exposure to chlorinated surface water was associated with bladder cancer risk among women and nonsmokers of both sexes. (1)  Research from the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands discovered that people who swam in chlorinated pools or polluted waters as children had 2.2 to 2.4 times the risk of developing melanoma compared to those who did not swim in chlorinated waters. (2) “Chlorination of water rich in organic material is known to produce a complex mixture of organochlorine compounds, including mutagenic and carcinogenic substances. A historical cohort study of 621,431 persons living in …