Drinking, bathing or swimming in chlorinated water is linked to higher risks of bladder cancer
| A Spanish research found that not only drinking chlorinated water is harmful to health, but also the cancer-causing chemicals can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin during bathing or swimming. |
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| Researchers studied a total of 1,219 men and women with bladder cancer, and collected information about their exposure to chlorinated water through drinking water, chlorinated swimming pools, showering and bathing. The results were compared to the data of 1,271 control individuals who did not have the disease. |
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| They also analysed the average water levels of THMs, a major group of cancer-causing chlorination by-products in water, in 123 municipalities where the subjects lived. The key findings were: |
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Those who drank chlorinated water had 35% higher risks of bladder cancer than those who didn't. |
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Higher concentration of chlorination by-products was linked to higher rates of bladder cancer. The bladder cancer risk was doubled for households with a level of THMs at more than 49 mg per litre of water compared to those with THMs concentration in water below 8 mg per litre. |
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Swimming in chlorinated pools increased bladder cancer risk by 57%. |
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Those who took longer showers or baths in areas with high levels of THMs had higher risks of bladder cancer. |
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| Their research results were published in the Jan 2007 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. (Related News: Jan 18, 2007) |
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| What are chlorination by-products |
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| Chlorine is a colourless and pungent gas. It has been commonly used to disinfect water since the beginning of the 20th century. However, chlorine will form a few cancer-causing chemicals (called by-products) in water. |
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| The main chlorination by-products are trihalomethanes (THMs) and chlorinated acetic acids. THMs are formed when chlorine interacts with tiny particles of decaying organic matter in the water. Chloroform is one of the THMs found in many water supplies. |
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| These chlorination by-products are responsible for most of the bacterial genetic mutations found in drinking water. Other studies also found that high levels of THMs in drinking water were related to cancers in the kidney and stomach etc. |
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| Ways to reduce exposure to chlorination by-products in water |
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Use an effective water filter that can remove chlorine and the chlorination by-products. |
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Swim in beaches with good water quality instead of going to chlorinated swimming pools. |
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Avoid prolonged soaking of the body in a bath. Take shorter showers. Ensure that the bathroom is well-ventilated to prevent steam with chlorination by-products from filling up the space. |
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| Why chlorine is still used for water disinfection despite its known problems |
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| Despite the well-known problems of cancer-causing chlorination by-products, chlorine is still widely adopted by most countries for water disinfection. The major reason is that chlorine is believed to be the most cost-effective way to kill bacteria in water. |
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| In order to prevent bacteria from thriving in the water we drink, man prefers to poison the water with a harmful gas - this is a vivid example of some of the absurdities in modern culture. Other examples include widespread usage of pesticides, insecticides and food preservatives. |
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| However, man is basically a symbiotic organism because we have billions of bacteria living in our mouth and gut. These bacteria help us break down the food so that we can absorb the nutrients. In addition, they stimulate our immune system so that we can fight against the bad bacteria that make us sick. |
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| Would you prefer some harmless bacteria in the water, or the mutated bacteria and cancer-causing by-products with chlorination? It's time to re-visit whether we really need water chlorination at all. |
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Has man damaged the environment so much that water can no longer clean-up itself during the natural recycling process? |
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Do the fresh water supplies contain so many bacteria, both harmless and harmful, that water becomes "drinkable" only after chlorination? |
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| If the answers are yes, then we should ask ourselves what we have done to the environment to come up to the situation today. |
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