Provoking inscription is written on the wall of an American water testing laboratory: “Disinfecting drinking water has allowed millions of people to live long enough to worry about the byproducts of disinfection.” But what could this message mean?
Disinfecting drinking water has saved millions of lives from infectious di
seases for decades. Although low levels of disinfection by-products may be of some concern, they pose an incomparably lower risk than pathogens carried by untreated water.
Can toxic by-products be produced during your water treatment process? Municipal drinking water is often treated with inorganic chloramines to prevent the presence of harmful microorganisms, but these molecules can also react with organic and inorganic dissolved compounds, forming potentially toxic disinfection by-products.
The journal SCIENCE gives a detailed account of the recently revealed health risk, according to which the commonly used water treatment (disinfection) process can be harmful to our health due to the degradation product of inorganic chloramines chloronide anion (Cl-N-NO2). This anion was detected in 40 drinking water samples from 10 U.S. drinking water systems at concentrations of 23 micrograms per liter, and while the exact degree of toxicity is currently unknown, the prevalence of this byproduct and its similarity to other toxic molecules may be a cause for concern, according to researcher Michael A. Funk.
Chloramine research is covered in detail in COSMOS MAGAZINE. In it, scientists make statements about, for example, that “the compound in question was not newly discovered, only newly defined.” No one disputes that disinfecting drinking water “saves millions of diseases and deaths” and that drinking water disinfected with chloramines has very low levels of toxicity and is orders of magnitude safer than a situation without disinfection.”
Chlorination is not the only water treatment process to neutralize microorganisms!
Ozone treatment and UV sterilizer disinfection are also good alternatives, although water utility providers prefer the cheap chlorination process, and the more expensive technological solution is only available to a limited extent.
Do everything you can to keep these harmful chemicals to your body as low as possible!
WizzWellTM atmospheric water production machines produce clean, healthy drinking water from air humidity and basic models are already equipped with an efficient integrated water treatment system combined with a UV sterilizer.