Chlorinated Water - Increasing Risk to Your Health?

Evaluating Risk Factors: Chlorinated Water

Evaluating your likely current (and near future) state of health means taking into account the risk factors — such as using chlorinated water — that affect you. Our medical diagnosis tool, The Analyst™, identifies major risk factors by asking the right questions.

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In the Environmental Risk Factors section of the questionnaire, The Analyst™ will ask the following question about using chlorinated water:

Do you use chlorinated water for drinking or bathing? Public water supplies ("tap water") are chlorinated.

Possible responses:

→ Don't know
→ No / I filter it
→ Sometimes but not often
→ Yes, for bathing but not for drinking
→ Yes, I drink it regularly

The Diagnostic Process

Based on your response to this question, which may indicate not using chlorinated water, occasionally using chlorinated water, using water treated with chlorine or drinking water treated with chlorine, The Analyst™ will use differential diagnosis to consider possibilities such as:

Bladder Cancer

Chlorination, the most widely used method of killing bacteria in water, is known to produce powerful carcinogenic residues, including Dioxin. Studies have shown that the risk of bladder cancer is doubled if you drink chlorine treated water.

Breast Cancer

Rectal Cancer

Researchers have now linked chlorine in drinking water to higher incidences of bladder, rectal and breast cancers.

Susceptibility To Miscarriages

In 2002, the Environmental Working Group and US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) released a first ever nationwide assessment of chlorination by-products (CBPs) in drinking water showing that more than 100,000 women are at elevated risk of miscarriage, or of having children with birth defects because of CBPs in tap water.

Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside Washington DC, led the list for the number of pregnancies at risk in individual communities or water systems, while Texas topped the list for number of pregnancies at risk statewide.

CBPs are formed when chlorine, added to tap water to kill microbes, reacts with organic material in the water. Chlorine also reacts with organic matter, including sewage, animal waste, and soil and plant material from polluted runoff to form further harmful CBPs.

The report estimates that from 1996 though 2001, more than 16 million people in 1,258 communities were served water contaminated with CBPs for at least 12 months at levels higher than a new legal limit. A handful of large cities put the greatest number of people at risk – Washington DC suburbs, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh suburbs in Pennsylvania, and San Francisco, California – but more than 1,100 small water systems also reported potentially dangerous contaminant levels. [U.S. PIRG Reports. Consider The Source: Farm Runoff, Chlorination Byproducts And Human Health; January 8, 2002]

Vitamin E Requirement

Chlorination destroys Vitamin E in the body, which can lead to heart problems, and has been linked to clogged arteries.

Concerned or curious about your health? Try The Analyst™