http://www.fulvic.com/healthalert/chlorine.htm

Cancer fighting nutrients become deadly when combined with chlorinated tap water


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 showed 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.

THMs are known to be created by the reaction of chlorine with humic and fulvic
acids, which are the final breakdown products of vegetation, including decayed
leaves and organic matter. Humic substances are the same as soil humus, of which
the fulvic fraction is water soluble and readily transported into streams and
waterways, as well as utilized nutritionally by plants.

Very recent scientific discoveries have identified and clarified the composition
of fulvic and humic acids as containing a significant amount of nutritional
phytochemical groups including hormones, sterols, fatty acids, polyphenols, and
ketones, which subgroups include but are not limited to: flavins, flavonoids,
flavones, tannins, catechins, quinones, isoflavones, tocopherols, etc.

These compounds 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.

Amazingly, is has been discovered that these phytochemicals remain intact,
concentrated, and intricately combined within humic substances; which are
valuable remnants of nature’s protective substances contained within fruits,
flowers, pollen, nuts and seeds, as well as vegetative parts including roots,
stems, bark, and leaves. Even the plant nucleic acids, RNA and DNA remain
intact.

To comply with EPA rulings, water treatment plants have had to develop special
techniques to scrub the seemingly dubious 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.

For years, environmentalists have battled the water treatment industry and large
chemical companies in an effort to ban the use of chlorine in drinking water.
This ongoing battle has been a big source of revenue for both sides. As word of
the problem spreads to the general public, something might actually be done
about it.

As this message spreads, it will no doubt shake the very foundations of the
chlorine and water treatment industries, let alone the government agencies that
are implicated along with them. There certainly should be cause for serious
alarm within the nutritional supplement and food industries, as well as those
segments of the medical industry that might awaken to the dilemma.

This message is of utmost importance to the general public, because chlorine
will one day, in the near future, 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. A healthy immune
system should be your first and best line of defense against waterborne disease.

Recer, 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.



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