Chlorine is used extensively by municipal water treatment plants to disinfect water from harmful water borne bacteria and viruses. In the early 1900's some 35,000 lives were lost due to bacteria and viruses in water. Chlorine was added to the water and within the first year 30,000 lives were saved. Unfortunately chlorine was prescribed to remedy the problem but not without side affects that were not anticipated. When chlorine mixes with other natural organic chemicals like dead, decaying plant and animal matter, a new set of chemical contaminants are created. These new contaminants are called Disinfection By Products (DBP's) and are a direct result of the addition of chlorine. Trihalomethanes (THM's) are a group of four chemicals that are a DBP of chlorination. THM's are harmful not only for drinking but bathing in as well. Our skin is our body's largest organ. When bathing in chlorinated water you actually absorb the chemicals through your skin.

Chlorine is gaseous. It is also know as a Volitile Organic Chemical (VOC's). Chlorine gas is more volatile when water is heated. The problem is when you take a hot shower you are usually in a confined space and that chlorine becomes a vapour. You inhale this vapour while you are showering. When you shower, your pores of your skin open and absorb the chlorinated water like a sponge. Chlorine can be absorbed into your body much faster by inhaling it as a gas than drinking it. Some studies have shown that it is actually worse to inhale these gases in a 10 minute shower than to drink 8 glasses of the same chlorinated water a day. Chlorinated showers can irritate eyes leaving them red, itchy and burning and cause dry skin promoting irritations and rashes as well.

THM's have been proven to be carcinogenic and associated with increases in bladder and rectal cancers. Adverse affects on the liver, and the nervous and reproductive systems are also linked to chlorination by-products.

The truth is - chlorine serves a critical purpose and the consequences of doing away with chlorine are greater than and equal to the related health risks. However, it is also obvious that chlorine represents a serious health threat and should be removed from our homes supplying the water we drink and bathe in.

IMPORTANCE OF CHLORINE REMOVAL

Chlorine is the easiest contaminant to remove from our tap water. The Ultra Max Plus or BackwashingCarbon Filtration will effectively removal chlorine from your whole home. Every faucet in your home will be chlorine free! Guaranteed! Check out our high flow shower filters - they are perfect for apartments!

The following are extracts from reports published by a variety of organizations, officials, doctors, and research scientists.

"Putting chlorine in the water supplies is like starting a time bomb. Cancer, heart trouble, premature senility; both mental and physical, are conditions attributable to chlorine treated water supplies. It is making us grow old before our time by producing symptoms of aging such as hardening of the arteries."
DR, HERBERT SCHWARTS, BIOLOGICAL CHEMIST

"Many carcinogenic agents take twenty to thirty years before effects show up and then it is too late."
HEALTHY WATER FOR LONGER LIFE
- MARTIN FOX, PHD

"Chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of modern times. It is an insidious poison. Most medical researchers were led to believe it was safe, but now we are learning the hard way that all the time we thought we were preventing epidemics of one disease, we were creating another. Two decades after the start of chlorinating our water, [1904], the present epidemic of heart trouble and cancer began. In the process of atherogenesis, chlorine is the essential agent."
CORONARIES/CHOLESTOROL/CHLORINE
- DR. JOSEPH M. PRICE

"If chlorine were now proposed for the first time to be used in our drinking water, it would be banned."

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT
DRINKING WATER - K.W. DONSBACH

"Chlorine is used almost universally in the treatment of public drinking water because of its toxic effect on harmful bacteria and other waterborne, disease-causing organisms. But there is a growing body of scientific evidence that shows that chlorine in drinking water may actually pose greater long term dangers than those for which it was used to eliminate. These effects of chlorine may result from either ingestion or adsorption through the skin. Scientific studies have linked chlorine and chlorination by-products to cancer of the bladder, liver, stomach, rectum, and colon, as well as heart disease, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), anemia, high blood pressure, and allergic reactions. There is also evidence that shows that chlorine can destroy protein in our body and cause adverse effects on skin and hair."
MUNICIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY
- FRANCIS T. MAYO, DIRECTOR