Water is the Source of Life! But did you know about this?
Water is the source of life; it is also an essential part of all living souls’ life as we have used water as sustenance, to cook and shower, etc.
Now let me ask you a simple question, where does the chlorine in our daily used tap water go?
The answer is: IT GOES INSIDE YOU! When we wash our vegetable, fruits and meats with tap water the chlorine diffuse into them, where they eventually ended up in the human body; during the shower, chlorine diffuses right through our skin; while our kitchen water filter determines whether chlorine would end up in our water or not.
So why does tap water have chlorine? What happened when chlorine goes inside our body?
When I stated water is the source of life, the life includes bacteria and waterborne parasites too. After treating the murky water, chlorine is added into the clean water to prevent recontamination as clean water are being delivered into our home through various pipelines. Drinking contaminated water would prone one to diarrheal diseases such as Cholera and serious conditions such as Typhoid!
However, adding Chlorine into our tap water comes with its own sets of a problem as well. Chlorine can react with organic substances in water to produce carcinogens such as chloroform and trichloromethane. Moreover, Ministry of Health of Europe and the United States have found that drinking water with Chlorine creates a higher incidence of cancers such as esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, rectal cancer, bladder cancer, and prostate cancer.
After reading this, I believe many of you would have some questions prompting your mind.
1. Can I remove Chlorine through boiling the water?
Can we remove chlorine through boiling the water? Unfortunately, the answer is no, when we heat the water, we increase the reactivity of Chlorine in the water, which in turn produces more chloroform and trichloromethane that are up to 3 ~ 4 times higher!
That means in our daily coffee, tea or soup. We have indirectly consumed carcinogens up to 3 ~ 4 times higher than the ordinary tap water.
2. Does Chlorine affect the quality of my fruits, vegetables, and grains?
Of course, it does. Chlorine is extremely reactive and would alter or destroy nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, reduces the quality of our meal and nutrients absorbance significantly.
3. What are the effects of the shower using chlorinated water?
If you have tried swimming in a swimming pool that uses chlorine disinfection, even if the pool follows a strict water quality standard, have you experiences uncomfortable conditions? Such as itchy skin, a bit of throat ache, very dry and frizzy hair, redness in eyes, etc.
In the same way, when shower with chlorinated tap water, 40% of the total chlorine in the bathroom was inhaled through the respiratory tract and 30% is absorbed by the skin, which is 6-8 times the amount greater than chlorine entering our body through drinking. In lower severity you may experience dry skin and itchiness, long-term exposure til middle age to chlorine will increases cancer rate by 30%!
4. What diseases does chlorinated drinking water bring?
Heart disease, coronary atherosclerosis, anemia, bladder cancer, liver cancer, rectal cancer, high blood pressure, skin cancer, and allergies.
5. Is there any substitute for chlorine?
In addition to chlorine, sodium chlorate, ferrate, and other substances can also be used as a disinfectant for drinking water. However, chlorine is cheaper, more natural to obtain and sustainable than other disinfectants.
So how do we remove chlorine from tap water? Don’t worry! MC-Ocean got your back!
