Disinfection Byproducts Can Harm your Health.

01 March 2011

What are DBP’s? These are byproducts of the chemicals added to water to make it drinkable and safe.
Chlorine is the most widely used chemical to disinfect your tap water. The government say that the levels in tap water are safe but what does that mean? What it means is that as far as they are concerned, chlorinated water will do no physical harm. However, as with all heavy metals, hormones, herbicides. Pesticides and DBP’S, there is no real safe level and despite the governments assurances, the outbreak of cryptosporidium and Giardia would suggest that the methods used are not fail safe.

The aim to provide water which doesn’t produce upset stomachs or worse is relatively successful and the addition of chlorine on this level does the job. Whereas chlorine is relatively harmless, it is the chemicals DBP’s which are so toxic. DBP’s such as trihalomethanes (THM’s) and haloacetic acids only exist where chlorine has been added to water so are not present in well water.

THM’s are Cancer Group B carcinogens which means they have been found to cause cancer in animal testing. This would suggest a link to the knowledge that DBP’s have been linked to reproductive problems and increased risk of rectal and bladder cancers.
A study “Drinking water source and chlorination byproducts. I. Risk of bladder cancer.”Cantor KP, Lynch CF, Hildesheim ME, Dosemeci M, Lubin J, Alavanja M, Craun G. conducted in 1998 found “…. that smoking men who drank chlorinated tap water for more than 40 years faced double the risk of bladder cancer compared with smoking men who drank non-chlorinated water. “
What is becoming increasingly clear is that taking control of the decision making regarding tap water is imperative if there are concerns about the quality of tap water and the impact it could have on health. Where water filters do their job and remove a small percentage of chemicals in water, it is only the reverse osmosis technology installed in water coolers which can guarantee the removal of chemicals, VOC’s, bacteria, hormones etc. These can be installed in the home to ensure great tasting, clean, healthy water or the technology can be used in office and other business environments in the form of water coolers, giving peace of mind.

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