Chlorine - the disinfectant you drink

While chlorination of municipal water supplies is necessary to kill and prevent bacteria as the water travels from the treatment plant to your tap, once you turn your tap on, you neither need it nor want it. Some water authorities are supplementing chlorine with ammonia (chloramine) so as to achieve higher residual levels of chlorine in suburbs furtherest from the treatment plants. Not only does chlorine have an unpleasant taste and smell but the potential health hazards of chlorine and its by-products are being increasingly recognised.

Research has shown that long-term exposure to some disinfection by-products of chlorine may increase the risk of cancer (particularly bladder cancer) or other adverse health effects.(1) A study linked a by-product (Trihalomethanes or "THM's") to a significant increase in the risk of miscarriage in pregnant women who drank five or more glasses of unfiltered tap water a day.(2).

Note: The MAXTRA Filter cartridge used in the BRITA jug and cask filter systems contains Activated Carbon and Ion Exchange Resin. The filter is effective in substantially reducing chlorine and certain disinfection by-products.  Independent laboratory tests have certified that the MAXTRA filter reduces chlorine by 98.7% and chloroform by 94.2% (3)

1) Environmental Protection Agency (USA): "A Consumer's Guide to the Nation's Drinking Water."
2) Swan S.H. et. al. "A Prospective Study of Spontaneous Abortion: Relation to Amount and Source of Drinking Water Consumed in Early Pregnancy", Epidemiology, Volume 9, No. 2, Pp. 126 - 140, March 1998.
3) Amdel Laboratories test report No. 6E0696 dated 19th December 2006.  Independent laboratory tests have certified the BRITA MAXTRA filter substantially reduces chlorine and chloroform (as indicator of chlorine by-product)

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