The following links are available to you so that you may come to your own conclusions about the dangers chlorine presents when included in drinking water.

Health Canada Chlorinated Disinfection By-Products (CDBP) Task Group http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ehp/ehd/bch/water_quality/chlorinated_disinfection.htm

Chlorinated Water and Health Effects
Health Canada, November 1998
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ehp/ehd/bch/water_quality/chlorinated_water.htm

 

What are the health risks of chlorination by-products?

Studies have indicated that several of the THMs found in drinking water cause cancer in laboratory animals. Bladder cancer has been linked to chlorinated drinking water in 10 out of the 11 epidemiological studies conducted to date that adequately measured exposures. One of the studies, conducted in Ontario with funding from Health Canada, concluded that 14-16% of bladder cancers in Ontario may be attributable to drinking water containing relatively high levels of chlorination by-products. Chlorinated water has been linked to colon and rectal cancers in epidemiological studies but the evidence is not as consistent as that for bladder cancer. There have been a few epidemiological studies on the effects of chlorination by-product exposure on low birth weight, birth defects and spontaneous abortion but the Expert Working Group found the results to be inconclusive.

Workshop Report Health Risks of Drinking Water Chlorination By-products:
Report of an Expert Working Group
Health Canada - Chronic Diseases in Canada
Volume 19, No. 3 - 1998
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb/lcdc/publicat/cdic/cdic193/cd193b_e.html

Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality - Supporting Documents
Trihalomethanes
Health Canada
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ehp/ehd/catalogue/bch_pubs/dwgsup_doc/trihalo.pdf

Position Paper
Safe Drinking Water: A Public Health Challenge

Donald T Wigle

Health Canada - Chronic Diseases in Canada
Health Protection Branch - Laboratory Centre for Disease Control
Volume 19, No. 3 - 1998
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb/lcdc/publicat/cdic/cdic193/cd193c_e.html