Health effects of Chloraminated Water
Various health hazards of chlorimated water by Environ Health Perspect Health effects of Chloraminated Water: Tri-chloramine inhalation Conclusions and relevance to professional practice: Indoor pool areas were associated with illness in these outbreaks. A large proportion of bathers were affected ; symptoms were consistent with chloramine exposure and were sometimes severe. Improved staff training, pool maintenance, and pool area ventilation could prevent future outbreaks. Key words:(click on them) chloramines, cyanuric acid, disease outbreaks, indoor air pollution, swimming pools, trihalomethanes. Environ Health Perspect 115:267–271 (2007) . doi:10.1289/ehp.9555 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 28 November 2006] Damage to red blood cells Chloramine. Another alternative to chlorine is chloramine, a combination of chlorine and ammonia. Chloramine does not produce chlorites and forms far fewer by-products than chlorine alone, specifically trihalomethanes. After 1979, when the EPA passed the first rule regulating disinfectants and their by-products, many utilities began using chloramines, usually as a residual disinfectant. According to the 1992 American Water Works survey, 31% of the population was served by chloraminated water. However, chloramine is far less effective than chlorine, and thus may not be safely used as a primary treatment method. It may be used in combination with lesser amounts of chlorine, thereby reducing by-products. Still, chloramine too may have potential adverse health effects. Chloramines have been reported to damage red blood cells. Chloramines can also interfere with the mechanisms used by red blood cells to prevent and repair this damage. Where chloramines are in the water supply, many dialysis centers have installed reverse osmosis units, along with charcoal filtration systems, to prevent anemia in hemodialysis patients. ALTERNATIVE METHODS Preventing the Problems Water systems can use two basic strategies to reduce the amount of disinfection by-products in their finished water, according to Richard Miltner, chief of the treatment evaluation section at EPA's Drinking Water Research Division in Cincinnati, Ohio. "First, don't use chlorine; use something else," Miltner suggests. "Second, remove a good deal of the organic matter before disinfecting through clarification and filtering." Water clarification techniques, such as coagulation, sedimentation, and filtration, remove many organic materials from finished water. Granular activated carbon (GAC), a filtering technique used in many European cities, can be especially successful at removing organic matter. Some American systems have been using GAC for many years to improve the taste or smell of drinking water, but now more are installing GAC as a method of reducing disinfection by-products. GAC is feasible for most surface water in the United States, according to Olson.