Chloramine + Fluoride + Piping = Tainted Tap Water

August 23, 2015 Featured, Fluoridation

Ever wonder what process your water goes through to be “treated” before you use it for drinking, cooking, and bathing?

All public water supplies are treated with chemicals prior to being delivered to the customer. Fluoride is a toxic chemical added to the public water supply just after the last stage of chemical treatment, but it is not the only chemical that is used in providing finished drinking water to the public. Prior to the water being poisoned with fluoride, it’s treated using other chemicals like chlorine and chloramine which have a drastic effect on the plumbing infrastructure, the environment, and human health. Chloramine (a carcinogenic chemical) and fluoride are a deadly combination to our water supply because together, they unfortunately become very effective at leaching lead from plumbing systems!

The primary methods and chemicals being used to “treat” your water are:

Chlorine – highly toxic – is a dangerous gas – is carcinogenic
Chloramine – made with ammonia – most commonly used treatment method – usually used as a secondary treatment – harmful to humans and is carcinogenic – may have a disagreeable taste and have an odor to the water; ? of all water districts use chloramines
Ozone – may require a secondary treatment , usually chlorine.
Ultraviolet – may require a secondary disinfectant – Non chemical – no side effects and no by-products – about ? the cost of an Ozone system.

Chloramines, + Lead Pipes + Fluoride = Contaminated Tap Water

[Sadly], American water utilities are increasingly switching to chloramines, a mixture of chlorine and ammonia, for final [treatment] of drinking water. Chloramine was supposed to be a “safer” water [treatment] than chlorine because it reduces formation of toxic chlorination byproducts. A 2005 survey by the American Water Works Association found that approximately a third of all utilities now use chloramines.

Chloramines altered the water chemistry and cause lead to leach from lead service line pipes and other plumbing materials such as leaded brass and solder. When we add fluoride to the public water supply even more lead is leached from the lead pipes. The resulting contamination raises the affected water lead levels throughout water supply serving area.

Lead, a powerful neurotoxin, was banned from household paint in 1978 and finally removed from gasoline in 1996. As a result of these two major public health decisions, lead levels in the blood of children have declined by almost 90 percent.

Chloramines – Protection or Poison?

Water utilities across the country are changing the way they treat our drinking water. They’re switching from chlorine, the primary disinfectant used in drinking water systems for over a hundred years, to the alternative disinfectant chloramine at an alarming rate. But are they making a sound, informed decision? What are the health effects? Where are the studies to help us understand the impacts to our health and infrastructure?

The fact of the matter is chloramines are a terrible mistake. While utility companies often use chloramines as a matter of convenience, there are far safer alternatives. As a world-leading nation, we have to stop cutting corners where our health and safety are at stake.

Studies indicate chloramine causes more rapid deterioration of the municipal infrastructure and degradation of valves and fittings. In water systems that still use lead pipes or components, this causes lead and other metals to leach into drinking water and out of faucets and showerheads. The chemicals themselves may not cost much, but we can’t afford their consequences.

Click here to read an online article entitled “Non-Organic Foods Blast Your Body With Up to 180 Times the Fluoride in Drinking Water” and watch a video of Dr. Mercola interviewing Jeff Green, an activist in the movement to eliminate toxic fluoride from your water supply for the past 15 years (until he passed away). R.I.P. Jeff Green, a friend of Secure Arkansas. Here’s a snippet from that online article:

“Add Fluoride, and Other Chemicals Become More Dangerous…

Interestingly, not to mention importantly, fluoride has the ability to affect other toxins and heavy metals; in some cases making them even more harmful than they would be on their own. For example, when you combine chloramines with the hydrofluorosilicic acid added to the water supply, they become very effective at extracting lead from old plumbing systems—essentially, together; they promote the accumulation of lead in the water supply!

“In fact the two of them have been combined, and I believe patented to be put together so that they could extract lead,”Green says. “… In fact, you’ve seen from reports in Washington D.C. about the lead content [in the local water] that this combination can have tremendous effects.”

Studies have also showed that hydrofluorosilicic acid increases lead accumulation in bone, teeth, and other calcium-rich tissues. According to Green, this is because the free fluoride ion acts as a transport of heavy metals, allowing them to enter into areas of your body they normally would not be able to go, such as into your brain.

“Industry prizes what we call fluoride compounds,” Green says. “What’s amazing is there is so much [information] out there that’s never explained to the general public. But [fluoride] is… the most aggressive seeker of another electron. It’s the most electromagnetically negatively charged element in the entire world. It basically is the most interactive of all the elements… It will give up whatever it’s with to be with something else…

So it’s prized by industry because it actually disrupts molecular bonds… Industry also wants it because it creates tighter molecular bonds. So Scotchgard, Stain Master, Gore-Tex, ski gear… These are all fluoride-type compounds as well because they actually make it a tighter molecular bond that is more impervious to penetration.

… By the time you get to the enzyme activity, and knowing what it can do to disrupt enzyme activity, the effects are so widespread, it’s just amazing… Once [people] learn the nature of fluoride, they would never want to put it in their water.”

Higher Lead Levels in Water Linked to Chloramines

There are other issues with chloramine in your water that you should be aware of, like its potential to extract lead from old water pipes. For example, when you combine chloramines with the fluoride (hydrofluorosilicic acid) added to most of the U.S. water supply, they become very effective at extracting lead from old plumbing systems—essentially, together, they promote the accumulation of lead in the water supply!

Chemical Resistance Guide for Plastic and Metal Valves and Fittings

Chart is from Northern Indiana Brass Foundry Company (NIBCO Inc.)

This chemical resistance guide has been compiled to assist the piping system designer in selecting chemical resistant materials. The information given is intended as a guide only. Many conditions can affect the material choices. Careful consideration must be given to temperature, pressure and chemical concentrations before a final material can be selected.

Thermoplastics’ and elastomers’ physical characteristics are more sensitive to temperature than metals. For this reason, a rating chart has been developed for each.

CPVC Piping

Chloramine – No data available
Chlorine Gas (<150PPM limited resistance to temperature of 120ºF
Hydrofluoric Acid <3% (Fluoride) – resistance to 73ºF

PVC Piping

Chloramine – resistance to 73ºF)
Chlorine Gas (<150PPM) – limited resistance to temperature of 120ºF
Hydrofluoric Acid <3% (Fluoride) – resistance 73ºF)

Copper Piping

Chloramine – No data available
Chlorine Rating C, not recommended
Hydrofluoric Acid <3% (Fluoride) – Not Recommended

Brass Piping

Chloramine – Conditional, consult factory
Chlorine Rating C, not recommended for any use
Hydrofluoric Acid <3% (Fluoride) – Not Recommended

Please Note: The Arkansas Department of Health needs to update their documentation to show the new fluoride concentration to be single value of .7mg/l instead of a range of 0.6 to 1.2mg/l. The .7mg/l is the new federal fluoride concentration. Why do you think the federal fluoride concentration level was lowered when everyone from the dental/health community says that fluoride is safe? Please be sure to check with your own water system to see if they have lowered the fluoridation amount.

Stay tuned!

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