Chlorine is added to most tap water because of its disinfecting properties. Chroline kills bacteria and other germs present in your drinking water. Chlorine may make the water safe to drink, but too much chlorine in water also leaves behind the chemicals that have been linked to causing cancer and other diseases. Chlorine can also be dangerous to you if you consume too much overtime or come into direct contact with it through skin contact or inhalation while bathing or bathing in chlorinated water. Chroline is also not good for pregnant women or anyone with any disease like bladder cancer.
In this article, we will show you how to remove chlorine from water to enjoy all the benefits of this process without worrying about chlorine exposure while still enjoying your food. Drink refreshingly every day with clean filtered water.
Why is Chlorine Present in Drinking Water in the First Place?
Chloramination is disinfecting and killing bacteria in drinking water by adding chloramine. It is commonly used instead of chlorination. Chrloramination can cause many diseases such as typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, and giardiasis. Sometimes water systems use chlorine to control taste and odor, remove iron and manganese, and prevent harmful growth of germs in wells, water pipes, storage facilities, and pipes.
Chlorine is also added because of its “residual” nature. Chlorine remaining in the water supply, or added after initial disinfection, is available to combat potential contamination in water storage and distribution systems that can enter through leaks and damaged piping. This is called “secondary sterilization.”
How Much Chlorine in Drinking Water Safe?
Chlorine levels in water up to 4 mg per liter (mg/L or 4 parts per million (ppm)) are considered safe outside of drinking water. At this level, adverse health effects are unlikely. But disturbing information online suggests that too little research has been done to determine whether this low intake of chemicals can affect our health and well-being.
For example, a recent study found that chlorine in tap water produces toxic carcinogens that may be linked to cancer. This study comes after organizations like the CDC assured that low levels of chlorine and chloramines are harmless. If you have a thermometer at hand, record the water temperature and let it cool to about 60 degrees F. This will remove any remaining chlorine from your drinking water source. Be careful not to exceed this given temperature or risk killing the good bacteria that may be present in your drinking water.
What are the Dangers of Drinking Highly Chlorinated Water?
Chlorine is a disinfectant used to kill bacteria, commonly known as a chemical used in swimming pool water and public tap water systems. While chlorine has a useful purpose, it is also a poison – too much can be extremely harmful to humans. Learn more about the potential effects of chlorine, how and why it’s used in tap water, and how recognizing dangerously high levels can help keep you and your family safe.
If you’ve spent even a little bit of time in a swimming pool, you’ve experienced a very small version of the potential harm of chlorine. Since it’s easy to drink small amounts of pool water while swimming accidentally, many people experience nausea and discomfort that can accompany a long day in the pool – it’s a direct result of ingesting chlorinated water.
Vomiting, diarrhea, and an upset stomach can all be effects of ingesting chlorine, and it can also cause dry, itchy skin. Severe chlorine poisoning can be much worse – a large dose of liquid chlorine can be extremely toxic and even fatal to humans. Additionally, chlorine can interact with water and its minerals to produce chemicals called trihalomethanes (THMs), linked to heart disease, eczema, asthma, and even cancer. It is essential to always maintain the correct chlorine levels, especially in tap and drinking water sources.
How to Remove Chlorine from Drinking Water
Some water treatment systems are more costly than others for removing chlorine from water. The most common methods for removing chlorine from tap water are:
1. Boil the Water
If none of the methods mentioned here appeals to you, you can use the simplest water purification method: boiling water. Science is simple to understand. Because chlorine is a volatile substance, it evaporates more quickly as temperatures rise.
It would be best to boil the drinking water for at least 20 minutes. There aren’t many downsides to this approach; it is effective and requires very little effort. Therefore, you will have to be careful with your water supply, and this method consumes more energy. Boiling the water method does not require any added chemicals, and you won’t have to spend money on equipment or installation, so it’s a small price to pay.
2. Using a UV light
Another water treatment method to treat chlorinated water is to use a UV (ultraviolet) lamp. UV technology typically uses wavelengths between 200 and 400 nm to induce chemical reactions that remove up to 15 ppm of chlorine or chloramines from drinking water.
Most people don’t realize that UV lights are a great way to remove chlorine – they’re not always designed to kill microorganisms like bacteria. Typically, a UV light is added to the bottom of a water filtration system, although you can use some types as inline filters to treat water throughout the house.
The advantage of UV systems is that most water filters cannot handle much chlorine, while UV lamps will not be damaged any faster by chloramine and the high chlorine in the water. One problem is that UV lamps are not exactly available at your grocery store. Buying them can be very expensive, and constant exposure is not beneficial for your skin.
3. Chemical Neutralisation
Chemical neutralization is a lesser-known method to reduce the amount of chloramine and chlorine in drinking water. This method involves the use of chemicals designed to remove chlorine. To treat chlorinated water yourself, you can purchase one of the more common chemical disinfectants, potassium metabisulphite, usually in tablet form. Once this chemical is dissolved in your drinking water, it helps to neutralize the chlorine, usually removing it altogether.
You can use potassium metabisulfite in drinking water because it evaporates after neutralising chloramine and chlorine so that it won’t add anything. Using chemicals specifically designed to remove chlorine is very effective, with one tablet typically able to remove chlorine from about 20 gallons of water. There are many other natural compounds that you can use as a home disinfectant for chlorination if you want to avoid chemicals. For example, vitamin C is so popular that there are now specially designed vitamin C filters to fit under your sink and showerhead.
4. Use a Water Distiller
Following reverse osmosis is distillation, which has also been very effective in removing chlorine from water. This water purifier is used to heat the water in a boiling pot, making the water evaporate. The evaporated steam travels along the corridor and condenses, forming droplets that drip into the clean vessel.
Distillation can remove chlorine from water because chlorine cannot evaporate and condense with water particles, so it will eventually stay in the boiling chamber. Most other contaminants, such as lead, bacteria, and pesticides, cannot evaporate and condense, so they are also left behind. With high contaminants removed, you are left with nothing but pure, clean, chlorine-free water. However, you can only distill a relatively small amount of water at a time, so distillers are best for small families.
5. Treat Water Using an RO System
The reverse osmosis method is generally considered the most effective way to remove chlorine from water. Reverse osmosis uses a very high-quality semi-permeable membrane to filter all ions and particles out of the water. The Reverse osmosis membrane allows only water to pass through and removes all chemical impurities and dissolved solids. RO also filters all chlorine and chloramines out of the water. RO process have plenty of advantages and disadvantages but its advantages outweighs the disadvantages, that is why its regarded as widely popular method to remove chlorine from water.
To get the best results out of reverse osmosis its RO membrane need to be maintained and replaced regularly. If you are wondering when to replace RO membrane? we have covered this query in our previous posts. All RO water purifiers require pre-filtration before the water passes through the RO membrane. And the activated carbon filter core is most commonly used to pre-filter the water before the RO membrane. The RO water purifier is easy to understand and use but expensive and wastes a lot of water.
Closing Thoughts
Chlorine has so many wonderful uses in this world, and it is a precious resource that we can all benefit from. However, adding it to drinking water can have a huge impact on your health. It is a great disinfectant, but it is toxic and not necessarily worth it.
We’ve shown you different methods on how to remove chlorine from water so you can drink clean and healthy water. Before deciding which method to use to remove chlorine from your drinking water, you need to ensure that your tap water contains chlorine or chloramine. If your water contains chlorine, all methods work, but you must use an activated carbon filter or reverse osmosis if it contains chloramine.
