Chlorine is a no-brainer

Chlorine is a no-brainer

tinypic.com

Busselton Water board has no option but to chlorinate it's water supply, according to a health department expert.
This is option of Dr Richard Lugg, the chair of the advisory committee for the purity of water, which reports back to the Minister of Health.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I saw this in my local paper today (The Mail, Wednesday June 30, 2010 Page 15) and thought I should share it with ya. I couldn't find the digital edition, so I scanned it and uploaded the article here:

tinypic.com...

Sorry, but I can't embed it, as the media portal has never worked for me

I'll paraphrase the article:

Chlorine is a no-brainer

Busselton Water board has no option but to chlorinate it's water supply, according to a health department expert.
This is option of Dr Richard Lugg, the chair of the advisory committee for the purity of water, which reports back to the Minister of Health.

Dr Lugg briefed Busselton shire councillors and addressed the council at last weeks special council meeting

“For the water board, there really isn't another option – they have to do it,” he said.

“For the scientific community, it's a non-issue. For the public health people it's a sigh of relief – there's too much of the local economy invested in tourism to be taking chances with the water supply.”

“For the ordinary people of Busselton, who use chlorine in their everyday lives, it's a no brainer. And for this council, the great promoter and enforcer of chlorination in this shire, I think it's just a matter of business as usual”

“Throughout the world chlorination is far an away the most widely practised method of making water supplies safe for consumption.” he said.

“Why? Because of it's wonderful combination of safety and effectiveness”

“The only thing that distinguishes this shire from the other local governments in WA in this respect is that it has the largest unchlorinated water supply in the state, indeed as far as I'm aware the whole of Australia.”

Dr Lugg said it was an anomaly that Busselton has the largest unchlorinated water supply in the state.

“One of the reason the tide of chlorination has taken so long to reach Busselton is that you actually have very good water here.”

“What is needed is a method is disinfection that will provide a residual killing power in the water while it is in the distribution system.”

“In the end it was a choice the board had little alternative but to accept.”


Now my view:
Sorry, but since when is adding a chemical that has 'residual killing power' into our bodies a 'no-brainer'? Especially when it's admitted that Busso “actually has very good water here”

What are your thoughts on this story?


tinypic.com
(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 1/7/10 by shamus78]

I bet the guy drinks bottled water.

Disgusting indeed, thanks for posting.

I suppose you have to ask how many cases of sickness have been reportedly caused by the water supply?

It is a sad day when a perfectly good water supply falls to chlorination. (And then next to fluoridation, followed by mind control chemicals)

Many people round here only use the tap water for washing and other non food purposes, and use the wells for drinking and cooking water. We have many wells here, and I have one on my land but it is a bit clogged. Need to sort that!!

My dad is afraid to drink well water without adding a bit of bleach to it every so often. To me that just doesn't sound right but maybe he knows I don't know. People survived on wells a long time.

pour a glass and let it sit for an hour, the chlorine dehydrates by itself.
Or get a water filter.
Because they're gonna put all sorts of goodies in your water.

Chlorine is the cheap and easy solution. Only drawback is it forms trihalomethanes when chlorine is added in quantities that do not allow for free chlorine throughout the entire water system. In large systems, this is almost impossible due to dead ends with low water consumption.

Trihalomethanes are bad as they are carcinogenic in nature.

To overcome this trihalomethane issue, the water treatment plant will chlorinate water to a free chlorine state then add a little ammonia to the water to form chloramine compounds which still disinfectants the water, but has a hard time forming trichloromethanes in the water system.

The other solution is to use ozone an disinfection agent. Much more expensive but it is a valid option.

Chlorine should be the least of anyone's worries.

"A survey by the Environmental Working Group released on Tuesday found 141 unregulated chemicals and an additional 119 for which the Environmental Protection Agency has set health-based limits." (in tap water)

The article goes on to say:

"For the unregulated chemicals, EPA is still identifying and considering the potential risks for possible future regulations. Nineteen of those chemicals exceeded EPA's unenforced safety guidelines for tap water systems serving at least 10,000 people, according to the advocacy group."

source: www.commondreams.org...



[edit on 1-7-2010 by sliceNodice]

You can get away without chlorination on a small well that feeds a very small area. That very clean water comes from deep underground and is conveyed through a very small "distribution system" to the house. So between very clean non contaminated water from deep underground and a "short length - small diameter" distribution system that is always scoured, there is less concern with water quality.

In a larger system for a town, typically a well wont cut it as far as demand goes, so they draw water out of a lake or river. I would easily drink a cup of water from a deep well. I would never drink a cup of water out of any river. So between the "dirty" surface water and literally miles upon miles of (relatively speaking) "larger" diameter pipe in a towns distribution system that is not always scoured effectively, they must treat the water with a shwack of chemicals to make the water safe from bacterias and aesthetically pleasing to the residents (meaning they must take out all the "solids" so that a glass of water looks crystal clear). The chlorine is a necessary part of this process to kill bacterias that are in the water and to keep the inside of the miles of pipe clean as well. Some times you will see the city workers opening up hydrants; they do that to flush out the water mains and keep the water from stagnating.

Anyway, the point I was getting around to making is that without chlorine in the distribution system, many people would die.

As for bottled water, it is less safe (bacteria wise anyway) than the water out of your tap. I wouldn't drink it if I had the choice. A lot of bottled water is just processed tap water anyway.

[edit on 7-1-2010 by IronDogg]

Well, be glad it is not fluoridation

Anyhow, using MMS would be way better for that purpose.

Sodium Chlorite is also used for disinfection of a few municipal water treatment plants after conversion to chlorine dioxide. An advantage in this application, as compared to the more commonly used chlorine, is that trihalomethanes (such as chloroform) are not produced from organic contaminants.