The Use of Chlorine to Purify Water

As municipal water treatment facilities sought to increase the quality and healthfulness of public water supplies, more and more cities began to implement chlorine into their water treatment process. Chlorine was first recognized as a valuable chemical in treating water when John Snow used it to purify the cholera-causing water of the Broad Street Pump. Noting the disinfecting nature of chlorine and its ability to curb cholera deaths, government officials in Great Britain began to chlorinate the public drinking water. This application of chlorine resulted in a sharp decline in deaths from typhoid, as well. After the tremendous success of drinking water chlorination in England, chlorination began in New Jersey and soon spread through the entire United States. Chlorination of drinking water, combined with the use of sand water filters resulted in the virtual elimination of such waterborne diseases as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. In fact, chlorine was so effective at eliminating the outbreak and spread of waterborne diseases that Life magazine named water chlorination as «probably the most significant public health advance of the millennium».

Chlorine has now been a major part of municipal water treatment for nearly 100 years. About 98% of municipal water treatment facilities now use chlorine disinfectant as their disinfectant of choice, and about 200 million U.S. residents receive chlorinated drinking water through their home faucets. Scientists are now beginning to examine the possible byproducts and side effects of using chlorine in drinking water. Chlorine is listed as a known poison; it undoubtedly has an adverse effect on our body systems. Chlorinated water has been linked to the aggravation and cause of respiratory diseases like asthma. Also, because chlorine vaporizes at a much faster rate than water, chlorinated water presents a significant threat to the respiratory system when used for showering. Recent discoveries of the health concerns of chlorine have led many people to install shower filters or whole house water filter systems into their homes. Such installations are the next step in the evolution of water filtration technology.

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Water Filtration at Present - Whole House Water Filter Systems

Despite government regulations and incredible advancements in water technology, the water issuing from home taps is still quite contaminated. Although municipal water treatment plants are intended to provide clean, healthy water to all city residents, such plants must work with heavily contaminated water. The water contains disease-bearing pathogens, pesticide chemicals, and industrial sludge, to name only a few of modern water contaminants.

City officials must provide the healthiest water to municipal residents which modern technology affords. Considering the dirty water with which they have to work, this task can be quite daunting. Disinfection and disease control remain the main goals of such water treatment plants. Consequently, city residents receive chlorinated, and often fluoridated, water. Chlorine has been linked to asthma and other respiratory diseases, and excessive fluoride intake can lead to yellowed teeth, dental problems, and other serious health problems for young children.

City water treatment plants are simply unable to provide pure, chemical-free water to city residents. Even when water is purified at a municipal water treatment plant, it often picks up lead and other chemicals when travelling through a home’s plumbing system. While shower filters are a viable solution for the removal of chlorine from showering water, the best, and most modern, available water filtration technology lies in whole house filtration systems. These water filtration systems are installed in individual homes. They filter water as it reaches a home’s plumbing system, removing chlorine byproducts, tiny organic materials, and any other unwanted chemicals. They provide the purest form of water available. In fact, water filtered through a whole house water filter has begun to fulfill Hippocrates’s vision of great-tasting, clean water.

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