Thursday, October 24, 2013
Chlorine Good or Bad??
Although chlorine is used to disinfect water studies have shown to increase the rate of bladder cancer and miscarriages for pregnant women. This study has made many facilities stop using it. Other facilities started to use an ammonia diluted version of chlorine called chloramine. In Washington D.C. the use of that resulted in lead in the drinking water. It is not completely clear whether the effects of going with chlorine or leaving it behind are going to cause new problems. Chlorine stops Microbes. Microbes are usually more prevalent in water with organic matter the chlorine mixes with that and creates a disinfectant. It is expensive ti have chlorine do its full job so many industries just add ammonia before adding chlorine to speed up the reaction time. But that resulted in chloramine. Washington Aqueduct added orthophosphate to the drinking water and now the lead levels are way less. But the less use of chlorine reduces the amount of chemicals that go into the other water environments. I never even knew chlorine was used to disinfect water. I never really knew why we had to use a filter when drinking water but now I see that it helps get rid of all the bad stuff that is stuck in the pipes where the water comes from.
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