| Dear
EarthTalk: I am very concerned about the amount
of chlorine in my tap water. I called my water company and
they said it is safe just let the tap run for awhile to
rid the smell of the chlorine. But that just gets rid of
the smell, perhaps, not the chlorine?
-- Anita Frigo, Milford, CT
| |
Researchers
have now linked chlorine in drinking water to higher
incidences of bladder, rectal and breast cancers.
A recent study found that women with breast cancer
have 50-60 percent higher levels of organochlorines
(chlorination by-products) in their breast tissue
than cancer-free women.
© Getty Images |
Thousands
of American municipalities add chlorine to their drinking
water to get rid of contaminants like nitrates, arsenic
and pesticides. But this inexpensive and highly effective
disinfectant has a dark side. “Chlorine, added as
an inexpensive and effective drinking water disinfectant,
is also a known poison to the body,” says Vanessa
Lausch of filter manufacturer Aquasana. “It is certainly
no coincidence that chlorine gas was used with deadly effectiveness
as a weapon in the First World War.” The gas would
severely burn the lungs and other body tissues when inhaled,
and is no less powerful when ingested by mouth.
Lausch
adds that researchers have now linked chlorine in drinking
water to higher incidences of bladder, rectal and breast
cancers. Reportedly chlorine, once in water, interacts with
organic compounds to create trihalomethanes (THMs)—which
when ingested encourage the growth of free radicals that
can destroy or damage vital cells in the body. “Because
so much of the water we drink ends up in the bladder and/or
rectum, ingestions of THMs in drinking water are particularly
damaging to these organs,” says Lausch.
The
link between chlorine and bladder and rectal cancers has
long been known, but only recently have researchers found
a link between common chlorine disinfectant and breast cancer,
which affects one out of every eight American women. A recent
study conducted in Hartford, Connecticut found that women
with breast cancer have 50-60 percent higher levels of organochlorines
(chlorine by-products) in their breast tissue than cancer-free
women.
But
don't think that buying bottled water is any solution. Much
of the bottled water for sale in the U.S. comes from public
municipal water sources that are often treated with, you
guessed it, chlorine. A few cities have switched over to
other means of disinfecting their water supplies. Las Vegas,
for example, has followed the lead of many European and
Canadian cities in switching over to harmless ozone instead
of chlorine to disinfect its municipal water supply.
As
for getting rid of the chlorine that your city or town adds
to its drinking water on your own, theories abound. Some
swear by the method of letting their water sit for 24 hours
so that the chlorine in the glass or pitcher will off-gas.
Letting the tap run for a while is not likely to remove
any sizable portion of chlorine, unless one were to then
let the water sit overnight before consuming it. Another
option is a product called WaterYouWant, which looks like
sugar but actually is composed of tasteless antioxidants
and plant extracts. The manufacturer claims that a quick
shake of the stuff removes 100 percent of the chlorine (and
its odor) from a glass a tap water. A year’s supply
of WaterYouWant retails for under $30.
Of
course, an easier way to get rid of chlorine from your tap
water is by installing a carbon-based filter, which absorbs
chlorine and other contaminants before they get into your
glass or body. Tap-based filters from the likes of Paragon,
Aquasana, Kenmore, Seagul and others remove most if not
all of the chlorine in tap water, and are relatively inexpensive
to boot.
CONTACTS:
Aquasana;
WaterYouWant.
Dear
EarthTalk: I’ve read that human breast
milk contains toxins from pollution and other causes. How
serious is this and what affect will it have on my baby?
-- Skylar S., New York, NY
| |
When
we nurse our babies we feed them minuscule amounts
of the same chemicals and volatile organic compounds
we are exposed to every day ourselves -- from paint
thinners and wood preservatives to gasoline byproducts
and flame retardants. However, some research shows
the toxic load in breast milk to be smaller than that
in the air most city dwellers breathe inside their
homes. Despite breast milk’s vulnerability to
chemical contamination, the benefits of breast feeding
- from the nutrition and important enzymes and antibodies
it supplies to the mother/child bonding it provides
- far outweigh the risks.
© Getty Images |
Researchers have
found that those of us living in developed countries—men,
women and children alike—carry around quite a toxic
burden in our bodies from the constant exposure to various
chemicals in our urban, suburban and even rural environments.
If this weren’t alarming enough, the fact that these
chemicals end up in breast milk and are in turn passed along
to newborns is even more troubling.
According to
writer Florence Williams, whose groundbreaking 2005 article
in the New York Times Magazine opened many women’s
eyes to the environmental health issues with breastfeeding,
breast milk tends to attract heavy metals and other contaminants
due to its high-fat and protein content. “When we
nurse our babies, we feed them not only the fats, sugars
and proteins that fire their immune systems, metabolisms
and cerebral synapses,” she reports. “We also
feed them, albeit in minuscule amounts, paint thinners,
dry-cleaning fluids, wood preservatives, toilet deodorizers,
cosmetic additives, gasoline byproducts, rocket fuel, termite
poisons, fungicides and flame retardants.”
In the wake of
such kinds of news reports, four nursing mothers came together
in 2005 to form Make Our Milk Safe (MOMS), a nonprofit engaging
in education, advocacy and corporate campaigns to try to
eliminate toxic chemicals from the environment and in breast
milk. The group educates pregnant women and others about
the impacts on children of exposure to chemicals before,
during and after pregnancy, and promotes safer alternatives
to products such as cleaning supplies, food storage containers
and personal care products that contain offending substances.
“Along
with its antibodies, enzymes and general goodness, breast
milk also contains dozens of compounds that have been linked
to negative health effects,” reports MOMS, which lists
Bisphenol-A (BPA, a plastic component), PBDEs (used in flame
retardants), perchlorate (used in rocket fuel), perfluorinated
chemicals (PFCs, used in floor cleaners and non-stick pans),
phthalates (used in plastics), polyvinyl chloride (PVC,
commonly known as vinyl) and the heavy metals cadmium, lead
and mercury as leading offenders.
Despite these
concerns, some recent research has shown the toxic load
in breast milk to be smaller than that in the air most city
dwellers breathe inside their homes. Researchers from Ohio
State and Johns Hopkins universities measured levels of
volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breast milk and in
the air inside the homes of three lactating Baltimore mothers,
finding that a nursing infant’s chemical exposure
from airborne pollutants to be between 25 and 135 times
higher than from drinking mother’s milk.
“We ought
to focus our efforts on reducing the indoor air sources
of these compounds,” said Johns Hopkins’ Sungroul
Kim, the study’s lead author. He concurs with the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and
many other public health experts that, despite breast milk’s
vulnerability to chemical contamination, the benefits of
breast feeding—from the nutrition and important enzymes
and antibodies it supplies to the mother/child bonding it
provides—far outweigh the risks.
CONTACTS:
MOMS;
Study:
Volatile Organic Compounds in Human Milk; CDC. |
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