There’s a new chemical player in water purification that we should all be concerned about. It may cause birth defects, genetic damage, liver damage, and kidney damage among other things. The biggest problem is that most water filters will not remove it from the water. The new chemical is chloramine. This chemical is engineered by putting together chlorine and ammonia.
Creating safe drinking water has never been easy. Chlorine has been the economical chemical of choice in the United States for many years. However, when chlorine comes in contact with organic materials, compounds known as THMs are created. People have raised enough concern with the government over THMs that the amount of chlorine is being reduced, but the new levels may be too low to do the job everywhere. That’s how chloramine started being used.
Chloramine does lower the amount of THMs. It’s possible to use a smaller amount of chloramine because it doesn’t evaporate like chlorine. Chloramine is very persistent. It persists so well it even works in human tissues after the water is consumed. Given the past track record of supposedly safe products being found to be unsafe, we should be very cautious about Chloramine.
A study done at the University of Illinois showed that one of the by-products of chloramine was iodoacids. They may be among the most toxic substances ever found in drinking water. Another research study demonstrated that after 5 days 95% of a single dose of chloramine given to laboratory rats was still in their tissues. Imagine if you are drinking and bathing in chloramine daily.
Chlorine can be easily filtered from water. Even the small, pitcher-type water filters can be effective. On the other hand, chloramine remains in water even after passing through carbon block, ceramic, reverse osmosis, and distiller filters. This means that your water filter probably will not eliminate chloramine.
We all want to make a better world and enjoy it, but let’s face it, you will not enjoy a better world if you are forced to drink poison. This is very serious stuff! You can take two important steps.. First find out if your water has chloramine in it. You can’t trust your municipal utilities to tell you the truth, so the best course of action is to purchase a test kit for less than $25. Second, if you do have chloramines in your water, purchase a water filter that will work against chloramine.