From Fulvica Bioscience
http://www.fulvic.com/healthalert/chlorine2.htm
Some of nature’s most valuable and essential anti-cancer and anti-disease phytochemical nutrients, which are commonly found in food, have been discovered to form deadly cancer causing substances when consumed or combined with chlorinated tap water. This discovery includes familiar foods including soy, fruits, vegetables, tea, many health products, and even some vitamins. Research has proven that these essential nutrients are the exact same families of compounds that - even in infinitesimal amounts - have been tormenting the water treatment and chlorine industries for years.
Recently a joint study was undertaken in Japan by research scientists at the National Institute of Health Sciences and Shizuoka Prefectural University. They determined that natural organic substances originating from foods, including fruits, soy, and green or black tea, react when tap water is chlorinated, forming dangerous cancer-causing compounds. These deadly compounds have been named MX, which stands for "unknown mutagen", and are similar to the already well-known and more easily detected cancer-causing THMs (trihalomethanes).
The Japanese scientists specifically mentioned that their studies show that MX is created by the reaction of chlorine with natural organic plant phytochemicals such as catechins, which are contained in tea, and flavonoids, which are found in fruit. Since Japan has an extremely high consumption of tea, fruits, and soy products, it is easy to see how high amounts of residues from these foods would end up in their wastewater treatment and water recycling systems.
Earlier studies by scientists in Finland in 1997 determined that MX is 170 times more deadly than other known toxic byproducts of chlorination, and was shown in laboratory studies to damage the thyroid gland, as well as cause cancerous tumors.
Flavins, flavonoids, flavones, tannins, catechins, quinones, isoflavones, tocopherols, etc. are some of the most valuable and promising anti-cancer nutrients found in our foods and health supplements. Coenzyme Q10 is a quinone, vitamin B-2 is a flavin, vitamin E is a tocopherol, citrus bioflavonoids including hesperidin, quercetin, and rutin are all flavonoids, green tea contains catechins, phenols, tannins, and isoflavones. Potentially all of these substances, and many more, are implicated by chlorination.
To comply with EPA rulings, water treatment plants have had to develop special techniques to scrub organic residues from water prior to treatment with chlorine. There is nothing wrong with the organic substances themselves, it is chlorine that is at fault for turning them into the deadly THM and MX cancer cocktail. Reality is that the organic substances have been shown to be highly beneficial combined with pure drinking water in trace amounts.
The bottom line is this: when water treatment facilities remove these substances, they are throwing the precious baby out with the bath water, and the remnants that remain are turned into cancer causing agents by chlorination. To make things worse, it is certain that the fresh plant foods we eat similarly react with the chlorinated tap water we drink with our meals, creating toxins. This means that fresh fruits and vegetables, green salads, green tea, black tea, herb teas, soy products, vitamin pills and various health supplements, and even some pharmaceutical drugs, all can be implicated in combination with chlorinated water.
The deadly cancer causing agents which are produced are extremely toxic in infinitesimal amounts, so small and obscure that they are extremely difficult to detect. Very little chlorine is required. When the concentrations of phytochemicals are high, such as in concentrated health supplements, or even fruits and vegetables coming from more fertile soils, the deadly combination with chlorination intensifies.
It has been known by the water treatment and chemical industries for many years that chlorine reacts negatively with natural organic compounds. These industries call these compounds DBPs (disinfection by-products) which are known to cause cancer in populations whose drinking water contains them. THM, the most commonly known DBP, is known to cause a high incidence of bladder cancer and also to cause spontaneous abortion of fetuses.
The Environmental Protection Agency has continually tightened their restrictions on THMs in drinking water, and even tighter restrictions are just around the bend. Yet it is interesting to note that the many government agencies and chlorine industries have conveniently neglected to take a serious look at food, health supplement, and pharmaceutical drug consumption, preparation, and production relating to use of chlorinated tap water.
There is good reason for the public to seriously examine and question this entire issue. Many years ago laws were passed making chlorination of water mandatory. Now, the chlorine industry and government agencies must continue their existing policies, because if sudden or drastic changes are made, the legal liabilities would be staggering. Certainly some government or industry personnel have known or theorized about these problems and have been covering them up for many years. However, if anyone were to admit to it, the consequences could be disastrous. This predicament could make the tobacco industry scandal seem insignificant in comparison.
Another area needing thorough scrutiny relates to pharmaceutical drug safety studies normally performed on animals in the laboratory. It would be reasonable to surmise that good laboratory practices and procedures would require that such studies be performed using highly purified drinking water for animals. It would be reasonable to believe that drug companies would not take the chance of jeopardizing clinical studies using chlorinated tap water. Of course chlorinated tap water is a common denominator within the human environment. Educating people to the dangers of chlorine would be admitting to knowledge of the problem, which could invalidate past studies and certainly raise serious legal problems.
This whole chlorine issue should come as no real surprise to any biochemist. During the last century, chlorine has been combined with many other normally safe organic substances to form some of the most powerful deadly toxins known, such as dioxin, DDT, PCBs, etc. The bottom line is that the real culprit is chlorine, not the substances with which it reacts.
Although chlorine has essentially eliminated the risks of waterborne diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery, there are many pathogens that are not controlled by chlorine. Other and better methods of water treatment exist. Many alternatives are already used throughout the world. Ever-tightening EPA regulations have forced the water supply industry in the USA to look into alternative methods for disinfecting water.
Chlorine will one day be exposed as a major cause and contributor to cancer and degenerative disease. Chlorine will also be found to be responsible for damaging the body’s immune and hormonal systems by mutating the food-based plant estrogens and phytochemicals that support those systems.
Sources:
RecerShizuokaPrefecturalUniversity, P; Water chlorine byproduct may be cancer risk; June 18, 1997; Associated Press.
Christman, RF; Kronberg, K; Singh, R; Ball, LM; Johnson, DJ; Report 259: Identification of Mutagenic By-products from Aquatic Humic Chlorination; North Carolina State University.
Rhomberg, L Ph.D.; Risk In Perspective: Are Chemicals In the Environment Disrupting Hormonal Control Of Growth and Development? April 1, 1996; Harvard Center for Risk Analysis.
Japanese data related to MX and the Shizuoka Prefectural University has been extracted from various abstracts published by the American Water Works Association (AWWA), and the National Institute of Health (NIH).
Plant phytochemicals and nutrient groups can be determined from information within the Organic Chemical Tables; Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society.
World Health Organization report.
British Department of the Environment report.
