Chlorine: Is it really so bad and what are the alternatives?

Abstract

Chlorine disinfection has been practised for over a century and has been credited with saving a significant number of lives worldwide on a daily basis, but it has received a great deal of negative publicity over the past few decades. The discovery in the 1970’s that chlorination of water could result in the formation of potentially harmful trihalomethanes (THMs) caused concern amongst the water treatment fraternity and resulted in authorities reviewing chlorination practices in order to minimise THM formation and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) setting maximum concentration limits for THMs in potable water. Many of the manufacturers and suppliers of water “purifiers” and alternative disinfectants exploit this information to their own advantage, misinforming the public regarding the dangers of chlorine, but even in the water treatment industry, chlorine is often misunderstood.

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