Is There a Link Between Chlorine and Cancer?

While chlorine has not been officially labeled as a carcinogenic agent, a significant body of scientific research indicates the existence of a direct link between the consumption of chlorine and cancer. For years, numerous clinical studies have indicated that there is an association between chlorine consumption and bladder cancer, breast cancer, and other deadly forms of the disease.

Even though some researchers argue that there is no definitive proof that chlorine consumption leads to cancer, it's a fact that there is no reason to believe that that there are any valid health benefits associated with drinking chlorinated water. Since there are no advantages to ingesting chlorine and there is a good chance that the substance is carcinogenic, it only makes sense to avoid putting it into your body.

The good news is that it's very easy to remove this harmful chemical from your water supply. When you install and use a drinking water filter system in your home, you'll be able to keep yourself and your family safe from the risks of drinking chlorinated water.

Leachate Facts

Contaminated water is called leachate and is produced when waste becomes saturated with water. Wastes with high moisture content or which receive artificial irrigation, rainwater, surface or groundwater infiltration produce leachate and methane gas. Once a rubbish dump is saturated, annual precipitation of 36 inches per year can percolate around 1 million gallons of contaminated water per acre. In turn, if a leachate reaches ground or surface water it could contaminate water supply wells.

Learning About Drinking Water Safety

Each American household uses an average of 94,000 gallons of water per year. We often take this convenience for granted. It is in everyone's best interest to be aware of this precious resource in order to conserve and protect it from many risks. Drinking water contamination can come in many forms, such as municipal and industrial discharges, recreational activities or simply natural conditions and events. These can all, in one way or another, be considered a risk to the safety of our drinking water. The EPA has developed a poster that teaches awareness of drinking water safety. It can be ordered from their website at www.epa.gov.

Combat Cancer: Start With Our Water Supply

One in every seven people will die from cancer. According to the Center For Disease Control, "death from cancer is increasing more rapidly than is the population.” It is now widely accepted that cancer is an environmental disease. The World Health Organization and the National Cancer Institute both suggest that most human cancers, perhaps as many as 90% are caused by chemical carcinogens in the environment, including our healthy water supply. By minimizing or eliminating our exposure to chemical carcinogens, we can significantly reduce the number of deaths by cancer.

Pesticides In Your Drinking Water

A significant cause of water contamination is pesticides. Pesticides enter surface and ground water from crops in agricultural areas. Pesticides are also used on golf courses, forested areas, along roadsides, and in suburban and urban landscape areas. Without proper safeguards pesticides have the potential to seriously threaten many groundwater supplies in the United States. Approximately 50% of the U.S. population obtains its drinking water from groundwater sources and as much as 95% of the population in agricultural areas uses groundwater as its source of drinking water.

What is MTBE?

MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) is a chemical compound that is manufactured by the chemical reaction of methanol and isobutylene. It almost exclusively used as a fuel additive in motor gasoline. A growing number of studies have detected MTBE in ground water throughout the country. In some instances these contaminated waters are sources of drinking water. The EPA released a drinking water advisory document in 1997 that indicates that there is little likelihood that MTBE in drinking water will cause adverse health effects at concentrations between 20 and 40 ppb or below. However, filtration of water is an important step to ensure our water is clean enough to drink.

Nitrates in Water

Nitrates are odorless, colorless compounds that can affect the quality of drinking water. Although minimal levels of nitrates are considered safe by the EPA, too many nitrates are unhealthy and can result in infant deaths in extreme cases. Higher concentration of nitrates are found in rural Colorado and in wells that are improperly positioned. Because nitrate levels vary seasonally, those concerned with nitrate levels in their water should have their water tested at several times during the year.

Carbon water filters are ineffective at treating nitrates in water. Boiling water with nitrates causes the nitrates to increase. To rid your water of nitrates, drill a deeper well or use a reverse osmosis water filter.

Combatting Lead in Drinking Water

The only way to determine if you have lead in your drinking water is to have your water tested professionally. Consumption of lead has been linked to developmental delays in infants and children and kidney problems and high blood pressure in adults.

Lead in water is the result of plumbing corrosion. You can reduce the amount of lead in your drinking water by running cold water through your faucet for a minute or more to flush through any lead that may have collected. Boiling water is ineffective at getting rid of lead. The simplest way to combat lead is with a drinking water filter designed for lead.

The Best Water Filter

The best water filter for ridding your water of the most contaminants is one that uses "reverse osmosis." Reverse osmosis filters are installed under the sink and require professional maintenance every couple of months. Because they are the most expensive water filter option, you may want to look into cheaper filters that remove specific contaminants such as iron, nitrates, chlorine or lead.

What Lies Beneath

Oftentimes, drinking water is contaminated by underground tanks. Fuel oil, diesel fuel, and many chemicals are stored in underground tanks. Over time, these tanks deteriorate and develop leaks. Minute quantities -- about one part per million -- may be enough to cause contamination and unsafe drinking water.

Winter Water Woes

Road salt is a major cause of contamination of our water supply. In order to melt ice, every winter millions of tons of road salt are spread across US highways. These salts are very soluble in water and move easily into groundwater. As a result, public and private drinking water supplies exceed federal and state limits of contamination by the chemicals in the salt.

Iron Water Filters

If your water tastes metallic, stains your laundry and smells like rotten eggs, you could have an iron problem. Although the water is safe to drink for most people, the side effects of running iron-contaminated water in your home are inconvenient.

Iron is especially common in water that comes from wells. Ferric iron (rust) requires mechanical sediment water filters, while ferrous must be removed by specialized iron water filters. Iron filters also often filter for hydrogen sulfide, manganese and other contaminants, but if you're concerned about chlorine you may have to look for a different filter.

EPA Water Standard Limitations

Through the Safe Drinking Water Act, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for making sure our drinking water meets standards for 90 different contaminants. Although these standards ensure that U.S. tap water is among the safest in the world for drinking, they don't protect everyone. Those with weakened immune systems and some children may be more sensitive to legal levels of contaminants in drinking water. Children are especially sensitive to nitrates, lead, copper, microbial contaminants and disinfectants. To minimize the effects of these contaminants, choose a drinking water filter system that targets these contaminants.

Flouride Drinking Water Filters

Flouride supplementation in water is a controversial topic. Those opposed to flouridated water argue that because flouride is a carcinogen and a mutagen it is unsafe to drink. Flouride in drinking water also can lead to dental flourosis - a condition that destroys the teeth.

If you are concerned about flouride in the water supply, purchase a flouride drinking water filter. These filters come in a variety of models including those that attach to your faucet and others that connect to the pipes under your sink. Most drinking water filters are carbon water filters that don't effectively remove flouride so be sure that your drinking water filter is specifically designed to remove flouride.

Testing Your Water Supply

Because water systems can change sources from one day to the next, water contaminants can also vary daily. Although your water system company is required to supply you with an annual report on water contaminant levels, you may want to test your own water more frequently to see how the contaminant levels change.

If you don't want to hire a company to test your water, calling National Testing Labs or Suburban Water Testing to request a water sampling kit. Several different tests are available to target the contaminants you suspect. Once you receive your water quality test in the mail, collect a sample of your water and send it back to the laboratories. Some companies that sell water filter systems will also provide this service.

Comapare the results of your water supply test with the EPA standards. These can be found on the EPA Web site or by calling the EPA Safe Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791.

How Drinking Water Is Contaminated

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that between 0.1% and 0.4% of usable surface aquifers are contaminated by industrial impoundments and landfills. These dumps and landfills are a threat to water supplies when water seeps through waste. During this process, it picks up a variety of substances such as metals, minerals, organic chemicals, bacteria, viruses, explosives, flammables, and other toxic materials. Drinking water contamination is the result. In fact, all source water is at risk for contamination.