Fluoride? Chlorine? . . How about Chloramines?
Daily Dose
Friday January 07, 2005There's something in the water � again
You've heard me railing about all the poisonous stuff the government puts in our public drinking water � fluoride, especially. Don't even get me started on how this darling of the mainstream is actually nothing more than toxic waste (once used as a rat poison) that doesn't even help your teeth! But fluoride's not the only poison Americans are ingesting in the vast majority of the country's public water systems � not by a long shot.
Chlorine is another major toxin (it used to be employed as a chemical weapon, in fact) that the bureaucrats are pumping into our water in the name of our health. Supposedly, chlorine keeps water supplies clean and free of many harmful bacteria. While this may well be the case in swimming pools, in the aging pipes and pumping stations most of our country uses to disperse public water, this "harmless" chemical can interact with small quantities of organic matter to produce some really nasty toxins � including carcinogens chloroform and DCA (dichloro-acedic acid).
I know � you've heard all of this from me before. But here's something you likely haven't heard: Some municipalities in the U.S. are starting to realize that chlorine's byproducts are a health hazard, and are implementing alternatives for water treatment...
Hooray, right?
Not quite. According to a recent Reuters article, a new study suggests that one class of chlorine substitute used in some U.S. cities' water supplies can produce byproducts that may be EVEN MORE TOXIC than those produced by garden- variety chlorine. Called chloramines (they're a blend of chlorine and ammonia), these substitutes may be linked to a family of chemicals called iodoacids, which have been shown to be up to 300 times more toxic than chlorine byproducts in laboratory animals.
What's even more disconcerting than this is the fact that only an estimated 30% of the byproducts of chlorine alternatives have even been studied for their toxic effects. That means the government's been adding chemicals to our water that it doesn't even know how will they affect us. Essentially, we're the guinea pigs in a huge poison study. Of course, that's nothing new, considering the fluoride and chlorine we've already been drinking, bathing, and washing our dishes in for the last 40 or 50 years.
William Campbell Douglas MD