Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Ban Chloramine (Chlorine + Ammonia) From Our Drinking Water

Please read below regarding chloramine being introduced as a disinfectant in our drinking water. 
 
Here's what happened:
 
1. EPA required drinking water suppliers to reduce the byproducts of chlorine by 2012.

2. To comply with the EPA requirements, many drinking water suppliers switched to chloramine as a disinfectant.

3. Existing infrastructure, such as lead and copper pipes, and lead solder is leaching heavy metals into our drinking water supply.

4. Washington DC, for example, saw an increase in lead poisoning after the introduction of chloramine in their drinking water.

5. Besides heavy metals leaching into our drinking water, chloramine is not as good of a disinfectant.

6. Chloramines produce byproducts referred to as HANs.

7. "The Science Behind the Symptoms" from Denise Johnson-Kula discusses health effects.  Denise can’t breathe after taking showers.  She’s focusing on the vapors which she says changes the species of chloramine to trichloramine.  She founded Concerned Citizens About Chloramine after San Francisco introduced Chloramine into her water in 2004.

8. Chloramine may damage red blood cells.

9. A study was done entitled Monochloramine-induced Oxidative Stress in Rat Colon Crypts.

10.  Here’s a study about chloramine enemas in rats and the inflammation caused in their colons as a result

11. Ammonia from chloramine converted to nitrite when the pH was too low in Ann Arbor, MI, during the summers.

12. Here's a Master's Thesis published this year. Please read starting on page 31 the Full-scale Study of Nitrification Factors.

13. Water treated with Chloramine as a disinfectant needs to be treated before it can be used in aquariums or by kidney dialysis patients.

14.  An Investigation of Nitrication Predictors and Factors in Two Full-Scale Drinking Water
Distribution Systems
 http://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/6450/1/Scott_Daniel.pdf

15. In reference to fish, "High levels of nitrite can convert hemoglobin to methemoglobin, a form of hemoglobin in red blood cells that doesn't bind to oxygen like oxygen-seeking hemoglobin. Red blood cells that cannot take in oxygen put your fish at high risk of tissue hypoxia (oxygen deprivation) and therefore threatens the aquatic life in your pond. Because of these risks, it is important for pond keepers to establish the nitrogen cycle quickly and with as little stress to the fish and aquatic life in their pond as possible."

16.  Organisms, such as Blastocystis have an ability to form nitrites from ammonia.

17.  This study supports "the concept that ammonia-monochloramine system plays an important role in H. pylori-associated gastric mucosal injury".

18.  Blue Green Aglae creates toxins per the link below “chlorine was effective in destroying toxins” but “Chloramination had little effect on toxins”.

Here’s The California Department of Public Health Drinking Water map and contacts for the district offices:

As a life-long resident of Santa Clara County, I am familiar with this area and the children growing up here. I am convinced that chloramine constantly fed through our water pipes, being ingested and inhaled 24/7 at home, work, and at school, cannot be good for us.

I had the privilege of accompanying my daughter's sixth grade class on their science trip in fall. Seven of the twelve 11 and 12 year olds were on medications, either inhalers because they couldn't breathe or lactase, Miralax, etc. because they had issues with their digestive tracks. Two of the twelve, had already had colonoscopies. I am finding similar health issues amongst children in every school where I substitute.  Chloramine is being implicated in corroding copper and lead pipes and solder. If it can do that to heavy metals, you can imagine what's it's doing to the mucous membranes lining our nose, throat, lungs, digestive track, etc.

Samantha and I have seen many physicians.  Not one of them ever mentioned chloramine to us.  Chloramine is not even listed in the 18th edition of the Merck Manual of which medical practioners reference.

If you find out that you are being serviced by water disinfected with chloramine and are experiencing any of the chronic health issues that are being reported, please take action by clicking the link below to sign a petition addressed to Lisa Jackson of the US EPA.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/stop-use-of-chloramine-in-drinking-water/

You might also want to visit www.chloramine.org where there are links to who to write regarding this issue.

I hope this information is helpful.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.






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