Chloramine Toxicity, Chloramine Safety and Chloramine Reducing
Shower Filters, Bath Tub Filters and Drinking Water Filters

CuZn KDF®85 TurboShower, Bath Ball and Drinking Water Systems and
VitaShower Vitamin C Shower Filter, VitaBath Vitamin C Tablets
Remove Chlorine and Chloramines from Your Shower and Bath Water.

The EPA's (Environmental Protection Agency) Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, for a hazard ranking under Section 112(g) of the Clean Air Act Amendments, considers chlorine to be a "high concern" pollutant based on severe acute toxicity.

"Chlorine is so dangerous" according to biologist/chemist Dr. Herbert Schwartz," that it should be banned. Putting chlorine in the water is like starting a time bomb. Cancer, heart trouble, premature senility, both mental and physical are conditions attributable to chlorine treated water supplies. It is making us grow old before our time by producing symptoms of ageing such as hardening of the arteries."

New research published this year by Dr. Michael Plewa, a professor at the University of Illinois, shows that the disinfection byproducts (DBPs) created from the use of chloramine are much more toxic than the DBPs of chlorine. These new nitrogen-containing DBPs are currently not regulated by the EPA. They are in California water supplies and he recommends that water agencies switch back to chlorine.

Chloramine is a mixture of chlorine and ammonia, which is added to the water of many cities as a substitute for free chlorine. It is often referred to in the plural, as “chloramines,” because it can take on a number of forms according to the pH and mineral content of the water.

• Chloramine is a combination of chlorine and ammonia.
• Chloramine is used to disinfect water supplies (like the Hetch Hetchy system.) Water utilities often refer to chloramine as monochloramine.
• In reality, chloramine exists as three different forms or species: monochloramine (NH2Cl), dichloramine (NHCl2) and trichloramine (NCl3). They are chemically related and are easily converted into each other; thus, they are more appropriately called chloramines.
• The three species of chloramine constantly and rapidly shift from one form to another. The species that predominates is dependent on pH, temperature, turbulence, and the chlorine to ammonia ratio.
• Even time plays a factor because after a day or so, with no changes in conditions, monochloramine in a water system will slowly degrade to form dichloramine and some trichloramine.
• Chloramines are all respiratory irritants with trichloramine being the most toxic (order of toxicity: monochloramine < dichloramine (trichloramine-most severe.)
• In contrast to what water utilities claim, it is impossible to have only monochloramine. It is not unusual in water systems for harmful di and trichloramines to occur.

At first, scientists knew only that chloramine didn't produce the same byproducts chlorine did. But over time they learned that it could produce worrisome byproducts of its own, including chemicals called nitrosamines. "Nitrosamines are the compounds that people warned you about when they told you you shouldn't be eating those nitrite-cured hot dogs," Sedlak says. "They're about a thousand times more carcinogenic than the disinfection byproducts that we'd been worried about with regular old chlorine." [read complete article]

Why Do Water Companies Use Chloramine to Treat Your Water?

Since chlorine makes by-products when it interacts with organic matter in the source or raw water, the EPA has ruled that those by-products must be reduced by the year 2012. Chloramine does help reduce chlorine by-products. Additionally, a "residual" or chemical in the pipe lines from the plant to our houses is needed to kill bacteria in the water on its way to our homes. Chloramine is a good chemical for that purpose because is does not dissipate and will remain in the lines to fight bacteria all the way to our homes.

However, Chloramine creates its own by-products that are more toxic than those of chlorine and are genotoxic, which means they attack our DNA. There are other methods of reducing chlorine by-products and cleaning the water as it runs through the lines without using chloramines.

Why Should I Be Concerned About Chloramines?

Toxic By-products - In recent studies funded and conducted by the EPA, scientists have discovered many by-products of chloramines that are cytotoxic and genotoxic. These byproducts are mutagens and have the potential to cause cancer and birth defects. Some of the known by-products are Iodoacetic Acid, Hydrazine and Nitrosamines.

These by-products are created in the water purification process. See more under Studies. While the EPA has studied these by-products and determined them to be "potent" carcinogens, they are only in the beginning stages of regulating them.

Health Concerns - In addition to the long term effects of the by-products discussed above, hundreds of people in other areas of the country in chloramines service areas are reporting respiratory and skin problems related to the use of chloraminated water. When chloramine undergoes heat or pH changes, it changes to di and tri-chloramines. Tri-chloramine is a potent respiratory irritant.

People are reporting difficulty breathing during and after showering and rashes, both of which resolve when they leave their water source for a week or two and which return upon return to the water source. CDC is currently investigating the reported cases in Vermont. There are studies that indicate that chloraminated water may adversely react with certain prescription medications. See Studies for more information.

• Reductive Dechloramination: Finalized Study of KDF®85 Process Medium
• Vitamin C Is Best for Getting Chloramines Out of Water
• http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/scieh/ environmental/enviropdf/Chloramines.pdf (PDF file)
• Chemicals_in_Drinking_Water_Chloramines.pdf (PDF file)

Showering may negatively affect our health more than we ever thought. Gases as a rule are less soluble in hot water, and when heated, the free chlorine in water escapes into the air we breathe. When taking a shower chlorine gasses are steadily increased in the air to an extent that we breathe the harmful fumes. Regularly taking hot showers with chlorinated water could irritate the lungs and pose a health risk.

How to Get Chloramine Out of Bathing Water

Some individuals may choose to reduce exposure to chlorine or chloramine. There are two effective methods of removing chloramine from your shower or bathing water:

1. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) has recently been included in AWWA (American Water Works Association) Standard (AWWA, 2005b) as one of the methods for dechlorination of disinfected water mains. There are no NSF International certified point of use devices utilizing Vitamin C, however SFPUC (San Francisco Public Utilities Commission) determined that 1000 mg of Vitamin C removes chloramine and chlorine completely in a medium size bathtub.
2. KDF®85 media removes a significant amount of water-soluble lead, mercury, nickel, chromium, copper, arsenic and other dissolved metals. It is is effective in controlling the buildup of bacteria, algae, fungi and scale, even in hot water and KDF®85 removes or significantly reduces chloramine, iron and hydrogen sulfide. KDF®85 also removes free chlorine, but not as effectively as KDF®55.

NOTE: Chlorine in water may be present in two forms, free and combined. Free chlorine does the hard work of killing bacteria and oxidizing contaminants. When you add chlorine to water, you are actually adding free chlorine. When the free chlorine combines with contaminants, it becomes combined chlorine or chloramines. In water, this form of chlorine has very little sanitizing ability, and no oxidizing ability. Total chlorine is just the sum of both combined chlorine and free chlorine.

CuZn's KDF®55 filter removes about 98% and KDF®85 removes about 80% of both free and combined chlorine as a new filter and diminishes in capability as the filter is used, as do all water filters. There is only one accurate water test that is capable of measuring both free and combined chlorine -- DPD#1 Test. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the beast, false readings are common.

Regardless of which method you choose for removing chloramine and chlorine, most people experience:

• You breathe easier by removing harsh chlorine vapors, which are caused from the hot water and inhaled in the lungs and transferred into the blood stream.
• Reduction of allergy symptoms.
• Alleviation of dry itchy skin and healthier looking skin.
• Luster and natural shine returning to your hair, leaving it silky and smooth.

Chloramine Reducing Shower and Bath Products

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How to Get Chloramine Out of Drinking Water

We offer the following KDF®85 filter option for kitchen countertops and under-counters:

• CuZn Chloramines Countertop Models
• CuZn Chloramines Under-Counter Models

Additional References about Chloramines

• National Primary Drinking Water Regulations
• Case-control study of bladder cancer and water disinfection methods in Colorado . McGeehin MA, Reif JS, Becher JC, Mangione EJ. Am J Epidemiol. 1993 Oct 1;138(7):492-501
• Type of disinfectant in drinking water and patterns of mortality in Massachusetts . Zierler S, Danley RA, Feingold L. Environ Health Perspect. 1986 Nov;69:275-9
• Plumbing the depths of D.C.'s drinking water crisis. Renner R. Environ Sci Technol. 2004 Jun 15;38(12):224A-227A
• EPA Microbial & Disinfection Byproducts Rules: Chloramines in Drinking Water
• Changes in blood lead levels associated with use of chloramines in water treatment systems. Miranda ML, Kim D, Hull AP, Paul CJ, Galeano MA. Environ Health Perspect. 2007 Feb;115(2):221-5
• Effects of fluoridation and disinfection agent combinations on lead leaching from leaded-brass parts. Maas RP, Patch SC , Christian AM, Coplan MJ. Neurotoxicology . 2007 Sep;28(5):1023-31
• Electrochemistry of free chlorine and monochloramine and its relevance to the presence of Pb in drinking water. Rajasekharan VV, Clark BN, Boonsalee S, Switzer JA. Environ Sci Technol. 2007 Jun 15;41(12):4252-7
• Evidence that monochloramine disinfectant could lead to elevated Pb levels in drinking water. Switzer JA, Rajasekharan VV, Boonsalee S, Kulp EA, Bohannan EW. Environ Sci Technol. 2006 May 15;40(10):3384-7
• Plumbing the depths of D.C.'s drinking water crisis. Renner R. Environ Sci Technol. 2004 Jun 15;38(12):224A-227A
• Nitrification in premise plumbing: role of phosphate, pH , and pipe corrosion. Zhang Y, Griffin A, Edwards M. Environ Sci Technol. 2008 Jun 15;42(12):4280-4
• Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health
• Ocular and respiratory illness associated with an indoor swimming pool--Nebraska , 2006. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2007 Sep 14;56(36):929-32
• Outbreaks of short-incubation ocular and respiratory illness following exposure to indoor swimming pools. Bowen AB, Kile JC, Otto C, Kazerouni N, Austin C, Blount BC, Wong HN, Beach MJ, Fry AM. Environ Health Perspect. 2007 Feb;115(2):267-71
• The determinants of prevalence of health complaints among young competitive swimmers. Lévesque B, Duchesne JF, Gingras S, Lavoie R, Prud'Homme D, Bernard E, Boulet LP, Ernst P. Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2006 Oct;80(1):32-9
• Occupational asthma caused by chloramines in indoor swimming-pool air. Thickett KM, McCoach JS, Gerber JM, Sadhra S, Burge PS. Eur Respir J. 2002 May;19(5):827-32
• Comparison of chlorine and chloramine in the release of mercury from dental amalgam. Stone ME, Scott JW, Schultz ST, Berry DL, Wilcoxon M, Piwoni M, Panno B, Bordson G. Sci Total Environ. 2009 Jan 1;407(2):770-5
• Case-control study of bladder cancer and water disinfection methods in Colorado . McGeehin MA, Reif JS, Becher JC, Mangione EJ. Am J Epidemiol. 1993 Oct 1;138(7):492-501
• Occurrence, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity of regulated and emerging disinfection by-products in drinking water: a review and roadmap for research. Richardson SD , Plewa MJ, Wagner ED, Schoeny R, Demarini DM. Mutat Res. 2007 Nov-Dec;636(1-3):178-242
• Assessment of the carcinogenic potential of chlorinated water: experimental studies of chlorine, chloramine, and trihalomethanes. Dunnick JK, Melnick RL. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1993 May 19;85(10):817-22
• Type of disinfectant in drinking water and patterns of mortality in Massachusetts . Zierler S, Danley RA, Feingold L. Environ Health Perspect. 1986 Nov;69:275-9
• Reducing chloramines in drinking water] Becker FF, Janowsky U, Overath H, Stetter D. Biomed Tech (Berl). 1989 Nov;34(11):280-8

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