Over-enthusastic chlorine filtration kills hotel visitor

Whole house chlorine filtration sounds a great way to get rid of the nasty-tasting chlorine: by removing the chlorine from the mains water supply as it enters the property, not only can you drink the water from any tap, but also all baths and showers don't give off that 'swimming-pool' smell of chlorine given off as you bathe and can help reduce skin irritation.

As I said, sounds great, but what are the potential pitfalls? Well, the reason we have a chlorinated mains water supply is that chlorine treatment helps prevent cholera, Legionnaire's disease and other horrible water-borne bacteria. The chlorine is present to help deliver safe drinkable water to our taps - it's like the plastic bag a loaf of bread comes in. The plastic bag helps keep the bread fresh on the shop's shelf, protects it as we carry it home, and helps preserve its freshness further at home as we eat it - but we don't eat the plastic bag. Chlorine in mains water is necessary for safe delivery to our taps, but we don't need to drink it...

So what went wrong at that hotel in Miami where the chlorine-treatment system installed has been blamed on the death of one tourist and the sickness of more? Well, it seems that Legionella bacteria was able to grow in the hotel's water supply, so that some guests contracted Legionnaire's disease, a rare form of pneumonia caught by contaminated water droplets entering the lungs which can be fatal in up to 1/3 of sufferers. The water droplets enter the lungs usually from drinking liquid (tap water) or inhaling water vapour water during a bath or shower. The hotel installed the system to enhance the quality of its drinking water for guests, but the mistake was that the system was too good at its job and heavily de-chlorinated water was allowed to stand in the waterpipes serving the hotel, giving bacteria chance to colonise.

The best way to dechlorinate tap water is to have a filter fitted just before it exits the tap or showerhead so the water pipes in a property only have chlorinated water standing in them and bacteria won't accumulate. Certainly, large buildings that may maintain a cold water header tank should not have a whole-house filtration system, as the bacteria would be very happy in such tanks - and human users would suffer the consequences. Through careful design and siting of tap water filtration systems, these remain the most economic, healthiest and greenest form of delivering pleasant drinking water to users compared to bottled water systems.

The Just Water Now mains-water filtration products are fitted at the 'point-of-use', just where the water is drawn off by a user, so that there is minimal chance of contamination. e.g the JWN Unit Filter is a simple cold-water filtration system that fits existing taps. We also ensure that a non-return valve is fitted to prevent backflow of dechlorinated water back into the distribution pipes if a fault developed.


Visit www.justwaternow.com to find out more.

My thanks to Bill Burton for the 'loaf of bread' analogy.