It's Not Just the Chlorine

With the nation’s attention focused on the ongoing lead poisoning of Flint, Michigan’s drinking water, you may be re-examining your own local water source and the ways in which your municipality disinfects it.

Many cities, towns, and smaller water associations may use chorine as a primary disinfectant. But recently, the use of chloramines as a secondary disinfectant has increased since chloramines can help reduce the regrowth of microorganisms during the transport of water between the treatment plant and consumers. However, there is an increasing cause for concern regarding the use of chloramines in addition to chlorine as a disinfection agent.

A recent article on the Water Technology website states that, “Inorganic chloramines are increasingly chosen as secondary disinfectant treatments for drinking water in municipal water systems because they are less chemically reactive than free #chlorine. They produce fewer disinfection byproducts than chlorine, and they survive longer during drinking water distribution to consumers.” The article by Dr. Joseph Cotruvo, Technical Editor and former director of the EPA Drinking Water Standards Division, goes on to say that updated Environmental Protection Agency regulations regarding total trihalomethanes (TTHM), “tightened compliance computation requirement in 2006. All of these [updated regulations] increased the numbers of water systems likely to be out of compliance with TTHMs or HAAs and led many to change to the chloramine approach.”

Do you wonder why Water2Drink worries about chloramines, and why you should too? As with chlorine, the disinfection qualities of #chloramines can be quite beneficial, right up until the point of ingesting them in your water. Chloramines are harmful to kidneys and can negatively affect kidney dialysis patients. Swimming pools, enclosed fountains, and other indoor treated water sources will release chloramines, which must then be vented properly so as to avoid respiratory irritation. This too can negatively affect citizens with asthma and other respiratory illness.

And in addition, the use of chloramines results in changes to the treated water chemistry which in turn disintegrates old #lead water lines, releasing lead into the treated water as it travels into your home or business. That is exactly what happened in #Flint.

There is a highly effective way to protect yourself and your loved ones. Install a point-of-use, solid carbon block Multipure Drinking Water System! A Multipure Drinking Water System will become the final barrier to the increasing hazards of municipally treated water. Water2Drink.com exclusively sells the Multipure family of Drinking Water Systems which are NSF-tested and certified to reduce not only chlorine, but also chloramines to NSF/ANSI Standard 42 (>98.3% reduction), and TTHMs to NSF/ANSI Standard 53 (>99.8% reduction). Multipure Drinking Water Systems also reduce lead, mercury, radon, and a multitude of other contaminants.  Contact Water2Drink.com today and let us help you make the best selection of a Multipure Drinking Water System for your family.