WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHLORINATED-BY-PRODUCTS (CBP’s or DBP’s) IN THE DRINKING WATER OF PREGNANT WOMEN
What Exactly Is Chlorine? Chlorine chemistry starts with ordinary salt - sodium chloride - a stable, natural substance. The chemical industry creates chlorine gas by passing huge quantities of electricity through salt-water. It was the first poison gas to be used as a weapon during World War I. Chlorine is the common link in many of the world’s most notorious & highly persistent poisons: dioxin, DDT, agent orange, PCBs, lindane, and CFCs. It is an acutely volatile poison, toxic to aquatic animals, & capable of combining with nearly all other elements, forming unknown numbers of chemical by-products..
The History Of Chlorine: Chlorine was first added to the nations drinking water in the early 1900's to control the spread of typhoid, cholera and other diseases. Our municipal water-treatment facilities were built for the purpose of disinfecting water, not purifying it. Most medical researchers were originally led to believe chlorine was safe, but now we are learning that even though we were preventing epidemics, we were also creating other far more toxic substances. Scientists discovered that chlorine reacted with organic material in the water (decaying leaves, pesticide runoff, etc.) to produce hundreds of chemical byproducts, many of which have been proven to be carcinogenic, and cause miscarriage & birth defects.
What Are Chlorinated By-Products? Chlorine purifies water because it is attracted to all things organic. As enthusiastically as it hunts down microbes, it also seeks wisps of algae, decaying leaves and other organic matter. When chlorine is used to treat water, it doesn't disappear, but produces hundreds of new compounds, now known as Chlorinated-By-Products, or CBP’s. CBP’s form when chlorine reacts with "natural organic matter" in the water. This “natural organic matter” includes sewage, soil, plant material, manure eroding from pasture and range lands, commercial fertilizers, algae, and pesticide runoff.
CBP’s Occur In 90% Of Rural & Urban Municipal Water Supplies
The Current EPA Standard In Our Drinking Water Is 80 ppb
Miscarriage & Birth Defects: The first ever nationwide assessment of chlorination byproducts in drinking water – Consider The Source - released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) & U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG), shows that hundreds of thousands of pregnant women are at elevated risk of miscarriage or having children with birth defects because of drinking municipal water containing a CBP, known as THM’s, or Trihalomethanes. The level at which studies show an association with low birth weight of babies is 10ppb. Epidemiological studies have found increased incidence of birth defects in women drinking water containing only 40 ppb THMs.
Cancer Human studies show elevated risk varying from 1 - 38% for 11 cancers: bladder, brain, breast, colon, rectal, esophagus, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas. The strongest associations are with bladder & rectal cancers. In 1998, Dr. Kenneth Cantor, head of the National Cancer Institute, summarized available human studies for colon, rectal, and bladder cancer. 12 of the 13 studies conducted showed increased risk of bladder cancer. A few of the studies showed a 50-80% increased risk for bladder cancer among people drinking water with THM levels of 50ppb. The current EPA standard is 80ppb
As Of 11/2004, 600 CBP’s Have Been Identified By Scientists - Our Municipal Systems Regulate 6 Of These !
What are Trihalomethanes (THM’s) ? Of the more than 100 cbp’s found in public water supplies, only four chemicals called THM’s are tested. THM’s, such as chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, bromoform, & benzene,, are the most prevalent cbp in chlorinated surface water supplies. These mutations are collectively labeled THM's. They are extremely dangerous, and occur in about 90% of municipal water supplies.
Most studies of the health effects of CBP’s have been limited by the fact that water suppliers are required to test for THM’s only 4x/yr. For researchers studying first-trimester miscarriages, this means that just a single value for THMs is available to serve as a measure of a woman's exposure to the entire spectrum of CBP’s in her tap water. Limited exposure data masks the full magnitude of health effects. The health risks associated with CBP’s in our drinking water are real.
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