Chlorine - the disinfectant you drink!
Adding chemicals to our drinking water will lead to the same sort of cancer epidemics in Australia they've now got in the US. There's a growing view among environmental scientists that high cancer rates in certain cities relate to the fact that they've been drinking a chemical cocktail for the past few decades... Professor Harry Recher, Australian, 12 March 1991

Every year around 80,000 tones of poisonous and reactive chemicals, including sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, copper sulphate, hydrofluorosilicic acid, sodium hypochlorite, lie, aluminium sulphate, liquefied chlorine, ammonia and another 50 assorted compounds are added to Australia's drinking water - to make it `safe' for human consumption. As our water sources degrade, more additives are necessary to achieve disinfection. Year by year the tonnage of chemicals in our drinking water keeps increasing.

Chlorine is a high reactive chemical, which is one reason why it makes such a good disinfectant. Chlorine and its allied chemical compounds are the most economical and efficient killers of almost all living things - bacteria, animals, insects, fish, reptiles and humans. Long ago, people called these substances poisons.

Chlorine has been linked to high blood pressure, anaemia and diabetes and is a contributor to heart disease. Even in the minute quantity, sufficient to kill germs, chlorine undermines the body's defences against atherosclerosis - the hardening and thickening of the arteries.

Several years ago a link was established between certain types of cancer and the presence of trihalomethanes (THM's) in our drinking water.

In the US Environmental Protection Agency table of drinking-water standards and potential health effects, opposite THM's is just one word `cancer'.

In summary, chlorination represents a long-term threat to public health of unknown magnitude. There are no guarantees, no laws and no standards to protect you. Until the actual level of risk is known, concerned consumers would be wise to consider the following precautions.

Extract from `Australia's Drinking Water -the coming crisis by John Archer