Chlorine
If People Only Knew The Truth
Atomic Weight 35
Chlorine in an element of the halogen group. The halagen group is comprised of fluorine, bromine and iodine.
These elements have only one electron missing. They are very reactive. After fluorine, chlorine is the most
reactive, non metal element.
Chlorine is among the 20 most abundant elements. In one ton of sea water, there is an average of 1.6kg of
chlorine. But in sea water as well as in natural mineral formations, chlorine exists in the safe, inorganic form as the safe negative chloride ion (salt - NaCl).
Properties: Greenish-yellow gas, liquid, rhombic crystals.
Hazard classification: Non-flammable gas, poison.
Toxicity: Poison to humans by inhalation. A strong irritant to eyes and mucus membranes. Man made chlorine compounds have been linked to 100's of disease and genetic health problems in both humans and animals. Concentrations of 50ppm are dangerous for even short exposures, 1000ppm may be fatal, even when exposure is brief.
Few people are aware that many countries have banned the use of Chlorine and products containing chlorine. In 1994 the Clinton administration attempted to also ban chlorine. In a related story, published in USA Today, a joint U.S./Canadian scientific advisory commission has issued a statement blaming chlorine for "startling health problems" and calling for both countries to ban it from the marketplace. The chemical industry was successful in stopping the ban of chlorine in both the USA and Canada.
Scientists have blamed chlorine for a massive ozone hole that develops over Antarctica each spring; the problem of holes in our ozone layer has increased, and currently scientist believe that it may be the biggest threat to the survival of life on the planet.
The ozone layer shields Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays. Depletion of ozone leads to skin cancer, DNA damage & many more problems.
Chlorine; another poison in our water.
Chlorine + Bacteria = Trihalomethanes = 2 Poison's
Summary : One of the most talked about contaminants in our drinking water is chlorine, a disinfectant used to kill harmful, disease-causing bacteria. Unfortunately, chlorine combines easily with other chemicals and naturally occurring organic material to form many carcinogenic substances. An example of this is trihalomethanes (THMs), which are associated with rectal, bladder and pancreatic cancers, and may cause damage to the nervous system. Chlorine has also been linked to heart attacks, strokes, premature senility and sexual impotency and hundreds of other medical conditions. The growing evidence of risks to the environment and human health from the industrial use of chlorine, has prompted major health and environmental agencies and organizations to campaigned internationally for a number of years for a global phase-out of organochlorines (the compounds made when chlorine bonds with carbon) as a class of chemicals (in water this class of chemicals are made in small amounts when chlorine is added to the water, they range from some of the most deadly poisons known. The chlorine industry is the source of roughly 40% of chemical compounds listed world-wide for priority regulation & toxic contamination. From small beginnings, the manufacture of chlorine has grown to an industry, producing some 40 million tons of chlorine gas annually. Humanity and the earth's environment have paid a brutal price for the development of this cornerstone of industrial chemistry. Chlorine chemistry is at the root of many of the most serious toxic threats on the planet. Worldwide there are about 15,000 organochlorine compounds currently in use. Very few have been thoroughly tested for their toxicity or impact on the environment and human health. When you think about it, the purpose of chlorine is to kill living organisms; as far as I know we are all living organisms! Even in small amounts, taken daily these poisons builds up in our systems and causes harm. Chlorine is the preferred treatment used by cities to control harmful bacteria and water-borne parasites in public drinking water. But when chlorine reacts with organic compounds in the water, it produces trihalomethanes and other poisonous chemical compounds, which cause cancer and many other health problems. Ironically, cryptosporidium, a microscopic parasite that can cause serious illness or even death, is resistant to chlorine. Many forms of bacteria, parasites, cysts & viruses have adapted to the presence of chlorine and are no longer killed by it. [source: USA EPA & NRDC] While you read this article please keep in mind; MiraculeWater processors are designed to reduce chlorine in the source water by 99.9999%+ in the finished product water from that compared to the source water. This level of chlorine reduction is almost un-heard of in the water industry.
In April 1915 Germany dropped 180 tons of chlorine gas on opposing trenches in Northern France. 15,000 French and British troops lay on the battlefield with scorched lungs. About 5000 died.
You aren't even safe in the shower!
As hot water steams, chemicals evaporate and are inhaled.
The amount of chlorine absorbed by your body in a 10-minute shower equals about two gallons of tap water consumption. Taking showers is a health risk, according to research presented in a meeting of the American Chemical Society. Showers-and to a lesser extent baths-lead to a greater exposure to toxic chemicals contained in water supplies than does drinking water. The chemicals evaporate out of the water and are inhaled. They can also spread through the house and be inhaled by others.
Thus far the most effective line of defense against the chemicals that may be absorbed or inhaled are point of use shower filters.
October 1, 1999 provided USA citizens to be a landmark day in the health of your family. A Federal law will require all city water municipalities disclose a water quality report to each of its customers.
The following excerpts, pulled from headlines and periodicals across the country descriptively explain the hidden dangers in our water...
Animal and human health effects
Doctor Patrick Flanagan, named at age 17 as one of the Top 10 Scientists in America by Life Magazine, recently advised in his book ELIXIR OF THE AGELESS that: "Drinking tap water is a slow form of suicide, today's tap water is yesterday's toilet water, too thin to plow and too thick to drink. Chemicals (chlorine and fluorides) used to treat water are positive charged cationic electrolytes that are potentially destructive to the colloidal balance when ingested into the human system. As one result, people die....
....inch by inch, not really knowing what is wrong!"
Marshall Mandell, M.D., recently published in his book, 5 DAY ALLERGY RELIEF SYSTEM: "Most cases of so-called psychosomatic illness are allergic and nutritional in origin - attributed to water borne chlorine" and that: "in short....
....everything man drinks is polluted with chemical agents that are foreign to his chemistry, and he is suffering the consequences of possessing a body that is incapable of handling the by-products..."
Dr. William Campbell Douglass, M.D., head of Georgia's oldest (five generation) practicing medical doctor family, began warning his patients against drinking chlorinated tap water during the early 1970's:
"....Chlorine is a very strong oxidizing agent, like bleach, and its effect of the blood vessels is one of destruction...it kills our cells..."
Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., advises readers in the HEALTH FREEDOM NEWS, that the long term effects of exposure to "chlorine in the water supply have scarcely been investigated" and that it (the chlorine) "in water combines very easily with various living substances, forming new organic compounds." Doctor Wright advises that while "chlorination is a necessary evil in public water that does not mean it has to be in you. It shouldn't be." And:
"I don't think it's wise to expose yourself to the risk of chlorine, fluoride, and other miscellaneous chemicals in your water supply."
Richard A.Kunin, M.D., in his recent book MEGA NUTRITION (A Program to Prevent Disease) said this about chlorine: "...even in minute quantities sufficient to kill germs, chlorine can undermine the body's defenses against arteriosclerosis. Chlorine in drinking water creates electrically charged molecules called free radicals...
...that can damage the intima of blood vessels and so create the environment for plaque formation..."
H. Ray Evers, M.D. was recently quoted: "the chances are that cardiovascular disease will be the cause of death in 3 out of 5 people and that this is contributed to by environmental pollution in water which can add to the harmful toxic build-up in body chemistry." Dr. Evers forewarns:
"The bottom line is clear: of all the ways you could die, there is a 60 percent chance that cardiovascular disease will kill you."
Richard A. Passwater states on page 162 of SUPERNUTRITION that many carcinogenic compounds are washed into our streams which ...
"...were once thought to be harmless but are now known to react with the chlorine used to treat the water we drink to form dangerous carcinogens..."
Dr. Michael Alvania of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. conducted a study of 7 counties in New York and reported:
"...what you could say without any equivocation is that my study demonstrated that people living in areas served by chlorinated water have twice the risk of contracting cancer..."
Researcher Joseph Price, M.D. stated that autopsies performed on U.S. soldiers who were killed in Vietnam showed that many had over 50% arterial blockage, although only in their late teens or the early twenties - caused by chlorine in their drinking water. Doctor Price conducted his own study on the effects of chlorine and he reported that while it is a slow death: "sooner or later chlorine is going to kill you" ... and "...to sum everything up, I must say that chlorine in your drinking water is the absolute cause of heart attack and strokes..."
"Our fate is connected with the animals", Rachel Carson wrote over three decades ago in Silent Spring and most of our evidence of the harm these chemicals will cause to health is derived from effects on wildlife: herring gulls forming same sex-pairs and abandoning their eggs; deformed beaks in bald eagles; alligators with undersized penises; immune systems damaged in seals in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Baltic seas.
Introduction
In 1774, the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele watched with total fascination what happened when he let a few drops of hydrochloric acid fall on a piece of maganese dioxide. Within seconds, the mineral dissolved into a dark-brown solution. But that is not all: a greenish yellow gas rose from the crucible. [Bayer, 1995 #1]
In its elemental form chlorine is highly poisonous. In April 1915 Germany dropped 180 tons of chlorine gas on opposing trenches in Northern France. 15,000 French and British troops lay on the battlefield with scorched lungs. About 5000 died.
Less than 50 years later the world woke up to the dangers of industrial uses of chlorine with the publication in 1962 of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring which documented the devastating effect of chlorine based pesticides on wildlife in the USA.
Modern chlorine chemistry is based on the chlor alkali process which uses electrolysis to split the sodium chloride (common salt) molecule into its constituent parts of chlorine gas and caustic soda. In the late nineteenth century both chemicals had uses for bleaching textiles and the manufacture of paper but chlorine, because of its extreme reactivity with other elements, especially carbon, became an increasingly important building block to chemical compounds such as biocides, solvents, the chlorinated plastic, PVC and extensive use as an intermediate reactant in a whole range of industrial processes.
From small beginnings the manufacture of chlorine has grown to a global industry, producing some 40 million tons of chlorine gas annually.
Chlorine has been called "The Devils Element"
"God created 91 elements, man a little more than a dozen and the devil one - chlorine" [Bayer, 1995 #1]. Industrial chemists have behaved like Goethe's "sorcerer's apprentice"; performing magic but without the means to keep the genie they have summoned under control. [Bayer, 1995 #1]. Chlorine gas does not exist in nature, and is therefore a stranger to our biosphere. Chlorine reacts with carbon, such as oil derived methane and ethylene, to create a new range of compounds called organochlorines. These are extremely stable chemicals that can be highly toxic. They persist in the environment and our bodies and bio-accumulate as they move up the food chain from micro- organisms to the higher mammals.
Perhaps US chemical giant Monsanto did not realize the effect that the industrial lubricant polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) would have on wildlife and humans when they were invented in 1929. These compounds are now threatening the fertility of higher mammals such as whales and polar bears and are the cause of intelligence disorders in children whose mother's ate contaminated fish.
At the time of their launch in the 1950s, the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were thought to have outstandingly useful properties and toxicologically harmless. No-one predicted how they would react with the upper ozone layer and expose large areas of the globe to harmful ultra- violet radiation. The UN Environmental Program (UNEP) has estimated that current ozone depletion trends will result in 300,000 cases of skin cancer worldwide each year and an unknown number of infectious diseases caused by immune system disorders.
At the beginning of the 1940s, the chlorine compound dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was praised all over the world as a wonder agent that killed insects threatening harvests and mosquitoes causing malaria epidemics in tropical regions. 15 years later it was found that DDT and associated chlorinated pesticides, such as aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, lindane, chlordane and heptachlor, remained intact for long periods of time, building up in soil and had the disastrous tendency -both for animal and humans - to accumulate in fatty tissue. As a result, DDT is passed on via the natural food chain in constantly higher concentrations.
At the time of their launch in the 1050's, the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were thought to have outstandingly useful properties and be toxicologically harmless. No-one predicted how they would react with the upper ozone layer and expose large areas of the globe to harmful ultra-violet radiation. The UN Environmental Program (UNEP) has estimated that current ozone depletion trends will result in 300,000 cases of skin cancer world-wide each year and unknown number of infectious diseases caused by immune system disorders.
These synthetic chemicals are now found in all living creatures. For example, through a process known as "cold condensation" organochlorines sprayed on crops in tropical climates are carried by high altitude winds to condense out into the pristine environment of the Arctic where they accumulate in plankton, seabirds, seals and polar bears and therefore the diet of Inuit people. It has been estimated that 99.9% of pesticide gamma HCH (Lindane) applied to rice paddies in Southern India evaporates to become available for long range atmospheric transport.
Organo chlorines are ubiquitous in environment: pesticides mostly gamma HCH, DDT, and BHC have been found in soils, in zoo plankton, and bottom feeding fish of rivers world wide PCBs , DDTs, HCHs, HCBs, aldrin, dieldrin, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide and chlordanes have been found in river dolphins; HCH residues have been found in rain water; and organochlorines have even been found in the air. Most northern industrialized countries banned many of these chlorinated compounds in the early 1970s but their effects are still being identified. [Stranger Report Green Peace]
HIT THE BOTTLE
New Scientist, 9/18/86
Some 36 million Americans drink water that's contaminated with toxins, microbes or other pollutants, according to a survey by the Natural Resources Defense Council. And the number of those imbibing potentially unhealthy water shoots up to 50 million people - - 1 in 5 Americans - - if you include those whose water is inadequately treated for contaminants. The study is designed to influence Congress, which appears set to dilute the Safe Drinking Water Act, up for renewal later this year.
CHLORINATED WATER - NOT FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION
New Scientist, 9/18/86
Experts agree, MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN S Dr. Robert Morris has been the featured health and water expert on Dateline NBC. Dr. Morris and colleagues at the medical center have concluded after examination of 10 previous studies of the cancer-causing problems of chlorinated water, "There is a clear pattern between consumption of chlorinated water and rectal and bladder cancer." It is projected that by the year 2015 the combined death rate from bladder, rectal and pancreatic cancer will exceed the lung cancer death rates due to carcinogens in water and food.
CHLORINE AND YOUR SHOWER
New Scientist, 9/18/86
"Taking long hot showers is a health risk, according to research presented last week in Anaheim, California, at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. Showers--and to a lesser extent baths--lead to a greater exposure to toxic chemicals contained in water supplies than does drinking the water. The chemicals evaporate out of the water and are inhaled. they can also spread through the house and be inhaled by others. House holders can receive 6 to 100 times more of the chemical by breathing the air around showers and bath than they would by drinking the water."
NEW SClENTlST 18 September 1986
Ian Anderson
"Studies indicate the suspect chemicals can also be inhaled and absorbed through the skin during showering and bathing."
"Ironically, even the Chlorine widely used to disinfect water produces Carcinogenic traces." "Though 7 out of 10 Americans drink chlorinated water, its safety over the long term is uncertain. ''Drinking chlorinated water may as much as double the risk of the Bladder Cancer, which strikes 40,000 people a year.
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT - Jul 29 1991
Is Your Water Safe - The Dangerous State of Your Water! A long, hot shower can be dangerous. The toxic chemicals are inhaled in high concentrations."
BOTTOM LINE August 1987
Dr. John Andelman, Ph.D..
"On one hand, chlorination has freed civilization from the constant dangers of waterborne epidemics. On the other hand in the mid - 70s scientists discovered that chlorination could create carcinogens in water."
"80% of the population drinks chlorinated water."
"There was a higher incidence of cancer of the esophagus, rectum, breast, and larynx and of Hodgkin's Disease among those drinking chlorinated surface waters."
"Volatile organics can evaporate from water in a shower or bath."
"Conservative calculations indicate that inhalation exposures can be as significant as exposure from drinking the water, that is, one can be exposed to just as much by inhalation during a shower as by drinking 2 litters of water a day."
"People who shower frequently could be exposed through ingestion, inhalation and/or dermal absorption."
IS YOUR WATER SAFE TO DRINK?
Consumer Reports Books
"Skin absorption of contaminant has been underestimated and ingestion may not constitute the sole or even primary route of exposure."
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Dr. Halina Brown
"Showering is suspected as the primary cause of elevated levels of chloroform in nearly every home because of the chlorine in the water."
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Dr. Lance Wallace
"A Professor of Water Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh claims that exposure to vaporized chemicals in the water supplies through showering, bathing, and inhalation is 100 times greater than through drinking the water."
"As chlorine is added to kill pathogenic micro-organisms, the highly reactive chlorine combines with fatty acids and carbon fragments to form a variety of toxic compounds, which comprise about 30% of the chlorination by-products.
"During the mid-1970s monitoring efforts began to identify widespread toxic contamination of the nation's drinking water supplies, epidemiological studies began to suggest a link between ingestion of toxic chemicals in the water and elevated cancer mortality risks. Since those studies were completed a variety of additional studies have strengthened the statistical connection between consumption of toxins in water and elevated cancer risks. Moreover, this basic concern has been heightened by other research discoveries.
THE NADER REPORT - TROUBLED WATERS ON TAP
Center For Study of Responsive Law
"The National Academy of Sciences estimate that 200 to 1000 people die in the United States each year from cancers caused by ingesting the contaminants in water. The major health threat posed by these pollutants is far more likely to be from their inhalation as air pollutants. The reason that emissions are high is that because water droplets dispersed by the shower head have a larger surface-too-value ratio than water streaming into the bath."
SCIENCE NEWS, VOL. 130
Janet Raloff
"The cause of atherosclerosis and resulting heart attacks and strokes is none other than the ubiquitous chlorine in our drinking water."
CORONARIES/CHOLESTEROL/CHLORINE
Dr. J.M. Price, M.D
"In the vast majority of cases where germ-free water is required whether for public supply, or in the swimming pool, the process of disinfection. will involve the use of chlorine in one form or another."
CHEMISTRY AND CONTROL OF MODERN CHLORINATION
Dr. A.T. Palin, Ph.D.. (O.B.E.)
"Chlorine gas was despicably used during WWI. When the war was over, the use of chlorine was diverted to poisoning germs in our drinking water. All water supplies throughout the country were chlorinated. The combination of chlorine (when in drinking water) and animal fats results in atherosclerosis, heart attacks, and death."
WATER CAN UNDERMINE YOUR HEALTH
Dr. N.W. Walker, D.S.
"Chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of modern times. While it prevented epidemics of one disease, ill was creating another. Two decades ago, after the start of chlorinating our drinking water in 1904. The present epidemic of heart trouble, cancer and senility began."
SAGINAW HOSPlTAL
Dr. J.M. Price, MD.
"Cancer risk among people drinking chlorinated water is 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine."
U.S. COUNCIL OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
"Drinking tap water that is chlorinated is hazardous, if not deadly to your health."
HEALTHY WATER FOR A LONGER LIFE
Dr. Martin Fox
"Known carcinogens are found in drinking water as a direct consequence of the practice of chlorination. A long established public health practice for the disinfection. of drinking water."
MUNICIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY
Francis T. Mayo, Director
"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 absorption 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.
The presence of chlorine in water may also contribute to the formation of chloramines in the water, which can cause taste and odor problems.
"Since chlorine is required by public health regulations to be present in all public drinking water supplies, it is up to the individual to remove it at the point-of-use in the home.
KEMYSTS LABORATORY
Dr. Riddle, Ph.D.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. "SHOWERS POSE A RISK TO HEALTH", lan Anderson, New Scientist, 9/18/86
2. "NON - lNGESTlON EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS IN POTABLE WATER" Julian Andelman Working Paper 84-03, University of Pittsburgh, 1984.
3 "THE ROLE OF SKIN ABSORPTION AS A ROUTE OF EXPOSURE FOR VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS (VOCS) IN DRINKING WATER", Halina Brown. American Journal of Public Health, Vol 74, 5/84.
4. "TOXIC SHOWERS AND BATHS", Janet Raloff. Science News, Vol. 130, Page 190.
5. "WATER", John F. Ashton and Ronald S. Laura. Nature & Health, 1988.
6. "HUMAN EXPOSURE TO VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN HOUSEHOLD TAP WATER: THE INHALATION PATHWAY", T.E. McKone Environ. SCI, Technology, Vo1.21,No. 12, 1987, PP. 1194-1201.
7. "THE NADER REPORT - TROUBLED WATERS ON TAP", Duff Conacher and Assc.Centre For Study of Responsive Law, January 1988.
8. "DID YOU KNOW THAT... A LONG HOT SHOWER", Bottom Line/Personal, Aug.15, 1987
9 .MADEMOISELLE, Prior to August 15, 1987.
10. "CORONARIES/CHOLESTEROUCHLORINE", Joseph M. Price, Jove Book, Alta Enterprises, 1969.
11. "WATER CAN UNDERMINE YOUR HEALTH", N. W. Walker D.S., Norwalk Press, 1974.
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20. "THMS IN DRINKING WATER", J.A. Court. Environs. SCI & TechNet., Vol. 15, No. 3, 1981, PP. 268-274.
21. "VOLATILE SYNTHETIC ORGANIC CHEMICALS (VOCS)", K.V. Dyke. Water TechNet. Vol. 13, No. 4, Apr. 1990, P. 38.
22. "IS YOUR WATER SAFE?" Carpenter, Hedges, Crab, Really and Bounds. U.S. News & World Report, July 29, 1991, PP, 48-55.
23. "IS YOUR WATER SAFE TO DRINK?", Raymond Gabber. Consumer Reports Book, 1987.
Chlorine is big business as it is one of the top refined elements in the world. Whether it is used in the treatment of water, as household bleach or any one of a hundred other uses. One thing is sure. Big business makes money off of it and we pay the price in the long run.
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