What is wrong with chlorinated water?
From the book "Wellness Against All Odds"
By Sherry A. Rogers M.D.

Chlorine is a halogen that damages body enzymes. It does not belong in our bodies as part of our water needs. Water is a God-given crucial nutrient for the body. But we have been hood-winked into accepting a product that is of progressively more inferior composition. It is well known that the average city water today contains over 500 chemicals that do not belong in it. But chlorine is intentionally added, and there are alternatives to purify it, like Ozone and ultra-violet light.

I have personally seen people experience a setback in their healing of a cancer either by drinking chlorinated water or swimming in chlorinated pools. All municipal water supplies in the U.S. have at least 1 ppm chlorine, and pools are even higher. And remember anything on your skin is like drinking it, because of dermal absorption. In some cities in the U.S., the chlorine level is so high that taking 3 showers a day puts you over the government standard for exposure.

Chlorine, for starters, potentiates magnesium deficiency, which you know can cause just about any symptom you can think of, from high blood pressure, to chemical sensitivity or sudden death. Furthermore, it also decreases the adsorption while increasing the excretion of calcium and phosphorus. (Kaup SM, Greger JL, Effect of various chloride salts on the utilization of phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, J NUTR BIOCHEM 1:542, Oct 1990).

All these years we've been putting people on low sodium diets for control of high blood pressure. But it turns out the sodium is not the problem as much as the chloride. (Wyss JM, et al, Exacerbation of hypertension by high chloride, moderate sodium diet in the salt-sensitive spontaneously hypertensive rat, HYPERTENSION, 9 [Suppl III]:III-171-III-174, 1987).

It is now known for example that the chlorinated water which is the "normal" drinking water of nearly all U.S. cities, not only contributes to hypertension, but also cancers of the pancreas, colon, bladder and much more. It also increases the loss of calcium into your urine, thus promoting osteoporosis.

A much better of way of cleaning the water of bacteria would be Ozonation which is indeed done widely throughout Europe. There are many other things they do, such as not allow our dyed oranges that contain carcinogenic dye (so naturally green oranges of Florida can compete with naturally orange California oranges). Nor do they allow our margarines, full of trans fatty acids, and known to promote arteriosclerosis.

Could it be this does not make the news because our water is chlorinated? As usual, the Europeans are ahead of us in the preservation of natural health, and they use Ozone extensively to kill the "bugs" in water as opposed to chlorine. It does a beautiful job, you have none of the free radical damage to the body of chlorine, and there are multiple other benefits of ozone for those who wish to seek them out. But research now shows that there is indeed a correlation of chlorine with many diseases, including cancer. For starters, chlorine can interfere with and damage the activity of many enzymes.

Likewise, the dangers of fluoride are often ignored. It too can be very damaging to enzymes and can cause a host of symptoms, as it is an aging factor. (Yiamouyiannis J, FLUORIDE THE AGING FACTOR, Health Action Press, 6439 Taggart Rd., Delaware, OH 43015, 1986). And although a discussion of it is beyond the intended purpose of this book, please do not go on fluoride, for example, on the recommendation that it is good for osteoporosis, until you have all the facts, comprehensive nutrient levels, and a consultation with a physician who is knowledgeable in biochemistry. And have a good filter system on your water.

Raloff J, Chlorination products linked to cancer, SCI NEWS, 143:343, 1993

Sselmuidenob IJ, Gaydos C., Feighner B, Novakowski WL, Serwadda D, Caris LH, Vlahov D, Comstock GW, Cancer of the pancreas and drinking water; A population-based case-control study in Washington county, Maryland. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDERMIOLOGY 136:7, 836-842, 1992

How safe is chlorinated water?
Since chlorine was initially added to water supplies in the Chicago stockyards in 1908, chlorination of drinking water has become almost universal. An estimated 75 percent of drinking water in the U.S. is chlorinated.

While chlorination has helped to reduce the incidence of infectious diseases, a dark side of the element has emerged. Known carcinogens, such as chloroform and trihalomethanes, are formed when chlorine reacts with organic compounds in the water. Organochlorines, which do not degrade well, accumulate in fatty tissue such as breast tissue, and can be found in body fat, blood, mothers' milk and semen.

Several studies have implicated chlorinated drinking water with colo-rectal and bladder cancer. In another study, highly chlorinated water resulted in a noticeable shift in the transport of cholesterol from beneficial HDL (High Density Lipoprotiens) to harmful LLD (Low Density Lipoprotiens).

In July, The American Journal of Public Health published the results of a study of cancer risk over an eight-year period in 28,237 post-menopausal women who reported the source of their drinking water. Those who drank water from municipal surface water sources consumed higher levels of chloroform than women whose drinking water came from municipal ground water sources. Further, the higher intake of chloroform was associated with an increased risk of colon cancer, and of all cancers combined. (87:1168-76).

Writing in Epidemiology, Franz H. Rampen, et al., of the Netherlands, stated that the world-wide pollution of rivers and oceans, and the chlorination of swimming pool water, has led to an increase in melanoma. (May 1992; 3 (3): 263-5)

Many people may not realize that chlorination does not provide full protection against the deadliest organisms in public water supplies. Cryptosporidium, a toxic parasitic protozoan, is highly chlorine-resistant and inadequately removed by "sand" filters.

Alternatives to chlorination are being used in Europe and Middle Eastern
countries. One widely used alternative method, ozonation, is a highly effective disinfectant, although it is not designed to kill bacteria in the pipes of the water distribution system.

The World Health Organization has called for limits on the amount of chlorine in drinking water. But until truly safe, effective alternatives to chlorination are identified, we probably have no choice but to continue to use this disinfectant. The discontinuation of chlorination in Peru was said to have caused a cholera epidemic. (Frank Murray, The Murray Report, Let's Live)