What will be the effects of drinking water with high chlorine levels?
Monday, August 30th, 2010 at
5:11 pm
It isn’t high enough to make you severely sick, but it’s enough to make you feel crappy.
Let’s say i’m stuck with drinking water with high chlorine levels. What kinds of effects will that cause?
FYI: This is at my workplace, at our staffhouse. I don’t strictly drink this water, i buy bottled water often.
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Filed under: Water Filters
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In the short term, not much of anything but an upset stomach, it is common for Americans visiting third world nations to use chlorine tablets to purify the water to make it better for consumption. In the long term though, there can be serious negative side effects. Ionized Chlorine acts the exact same way naturally occurring free radicals do in your body. They both speed the aging process, the effects are not outwardly visible, but for someone who drinks exclusively chlorine purified water for a year, their heart will age 10 years, and their lungs will age 20, the liver and kidneys will be near failure. What is potentially worse is that ionized chlorine in high volumes acts as a gyrorestrictor, meaning you can not effectively metabolize iron or zinc, leading to potentially lethal depression of serum ferite levels. In essence, high chlorine water can have extremely serious negative effects over long exposure periods. Avoid at all costs.
All municipal water departments in the United States are under strict EPA control. They’re not going to allow the chlorine levels to exceed unsafe levels, or else the water department is compelled by law to stop pumping. If you detect an obnoxious chlorine odor in your water, let it sit in the glass for a few minutes. if it’s simple chlorine gas, it should dissipate in a few minutes. However, some municipalities use a chemical called chloramine, which does NOT break down upon exposure to air, and it can’t be boiled out. You can always call the quality control department of your local water department and inquire if your municipality uses chloramine, and if so, what levels are they running? If it’s running very high and you feel you are suffering some ill effects, you might be happier with drinking bottled water. You don’t have to purchase expensive brands; Walmart’s jugs of drinking water are just as wholesome and safe as expensive boutique brands. If this is a long term problem with your municipality, you might look into installing a Reverse Osmosis system on your drinking water faucet. That cuts the levels of everything in your drinking water by 95%, and results in very delicious pure water that’s great for drinking, cooking or making coffee.