Cooking with Chlori(ma)nated Water May Harm Your Health

By Catherine J. Frompovich

Are you familiar with how municipal tap water is treated? There are two basic disinfection processes: the addition of chlorine, or chloramines that are made using ammonia, which is the more preferable treatment.

Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Nanjing University in China have presented study results showing that cooking with chloraminated water potentially creates and puts harmful toxins into food, especially when the food is cooked with iodized table salt. Furthermore, the two scientists, who did the research, indicate that the molecules they found are considered “almost new” to researchers! What does that have to say about the art of science?

A suggestion to not cook food with iodized table salt, cooking at lower temperatures and for shorter periods of time, may be safer to do. More research is needed to ascertain the new molecules effects on human health.

Cooking food with iodized table salt and chloraminated water creates hypoiodous acid which, in turn, reacts with the food and other organic matter in water to create “cooking iodinated disinfection byproducts” or I-DBPs.

Interestingly, I-DBPs are “something new to environmental chemists, toxicologists and engineers,” according to Dr. Xiangru Zhang, the corresponding author of the paper and Associate Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The research paper is due to be published in the journal Water Research in January 2016.

The above is one more reason, in my opinion, to be extremely careful about all the chemicals used in food production at every stage from farm to table, plus water, because even science doesn’t know the biochemical interactions that can occur along with adverse reactions.

Back in 2007, this information about chloramines was published online [1]:

New Research: Chloramine Disinfection Byproducts More Toxic Than Those of Chlorine

New research published in 2007 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. See the article “Anna Eshoo takes up chloramine question” by Daniel DeBolt. Also see the abstract for the research paper on haloacetonitriles by Dr. Plewa and others.

According to Wikipedia, [2]

Removing chloramines from water

Chloramines should be removed from water for dialysis, aquariums, hydroponic applications, and homebrewing beer. Chloramines can interfere with dialysis, can hurt aquatic animals, and can give homebrewed beer a medicinal taste by forming chlorophenols. In hydroponic applications, it will stunt the growth of plants.

When a chemical or biological process that changes the chemistry of chloramines is used, it falls under reductive dechlorination. Other techniques use physical—not chemical—methods for removing chloramines.

According to Wikipedia, chloramines can be removed from water by “boiling or aging.”

The time required to remove half of the chloramine (half-life) from 10 gallons of water by boiling is 26.6 hours, whereas the half-life of free chlorine in boiling 10 gallons of water is only 1.8 hours.

Under “Safety,” Wikipedia states:

Both iodinated disinfection by-products and N-nitrosodimethylamine have been shown to be genotoxic.

Genotoxic means capable of causing cell mutations!

I suggest readers do your research first and contact your tap water provider to ask if chloramines are placed in the water. However, if you feel you don’t want to be using chloraminated water, there are some resources available.

There are filters available that remove chloramines from water. Here are some online resources, which I cannot recommend because I know nothing about them.

20” Big Blue Chloramine Removal Water Filter System
http://www.servapure.com/20-Big-Blue-Chloramine-Removal-Water-Filter-System_p_6882.html?gclid=CNKq48TDqskCFUUYHwod5AEC_Q

3-Stage Under Counter Filter
http://www.aquasana.com/product_detail.php?product_id=24&option=chrome&discountcode=AQGPSHIP&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=CSEGO&discountcode=aqgpship&gclid=CLCZ1MXEqskCFYcTHwodvtEGLA&kwid=productads-plaid^123748657225-sku^[email protected]^PLA-device^c-adid^64097956945

Whole House Filter System
http://www.aquasana.com/product_detail.php?product_id=200&discountcode=AQGPSHIP&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=CSEGO&discountcode=aqgpship&gclid=CLyCjd_EqskCFYEmHwodUYYHJQ&kwid=productads-plaid^80035678757-sku^EQ@ADL4600-adType^PLA-device^c-adid^65376717385

References:
[1] http://www.chloramine.org/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine

This article (Cooking with Chlori(ma)nated Water May Harm Your Health) can be republished  under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Catherine J. Frompovich and the website, keeping all links intact.

Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.

Catherine’s latest book, published October 4, 2013, is Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Don’t Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com.

Her 2012 book A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.

Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick(2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008)