# Is chloramine treated tap water going to kill me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 20, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374 "2010-07-20T18:17:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/61 "2010-12-12T20:57:21Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Yes, but on the other hand I’ve grown more than three feet and learned to poop in the potty since we moved to Chloramine Town. It’s obviously far superior to well water. Good god! Chloramine must be stopped. So, how many feet do you now have, and where do you buy shoes for all those feet? ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/62 "2010-12-12T21:09:34Z")
> [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](#): > > Our neighborhood has used well water since forever, but we’ve run out and now the municipal utility district is pumping it in from a neighboring city. That city’s water is treated with chloramines (not chlorine). I’m kinda glad for the switch since that city’s water tastes much better than ours. Think a little chloramine is going to kill you? Heck, try drinking untreated water for a while and see if you are in the pink 'o health. We went away for a week, and when we got back, the town was under an emergency water rule because the treatment plant wasn’t working. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that, and ended up drinking the untreated water. Chlorine is not a very nice compound. It’s the reason why the Germans and allies spent so much time trying to get the other side to inhale it during WWI. However, Chlorine in water kills infectious water agents and prevents many illnesses. It’s why we don’t have Cholera outbreaks in the U.S. any more. Nor, should you assume that your well water was waters blessed by the holy angels. It tasted funny? Probably means there was something dissolved in it, and there’s an excellent chance that stuff that was dissolved in it was probably more toxic than the chloramine in the water you’re currently drinking. Well water around here can be full of arsenic and natural hydrocarbons from natural gas leaks. In some areas, it is full of various dissolved metals. In rural areas, well water is often contaminated with fertilizers and pesticides that wash off from farms. Just curious. Did you ever have your well water tested? ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/63 "2010-12-13T09:52:58Z")
Just chiming in to say that this is the first time I hear someone saying that drinking water in Spain can induce gastrointestinal problems in tourists. FWIW, I am Spanish (although I have been living abroad for the past 16 years, the last 11 of them in the Netherlands.). Never in my life have I encountered anybody, or heard of anybody becoming sick from drinking Spanish tap water. Also FWIW, my mother worked as a nurse in the local hospital and I have a lot of contacts and friends among those in the medical profession; she or our friends never heard about that particular thing being a concern. I would say that, Spain being dependent on (cheap) tourism in summer for a good chunk of income, it would be actually in the best interests of the country to make sure that water supplies in tourist areas are reasonably decent. Of course, there are certain places (Canary Islands, areas in the south) that are bone-dry and you simply do not have the water. There are desalination plants, but even locals there will buy bottled water because the local supply is scarce and tastes awful (desalination plants will not get rid of a salty taste in the water). But, again, this is the first time I hear someone claiming that tap water in Spain will give you the trots. ---
**Author:** ![minicute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@minicute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minicute)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/64 "2011-05-06T19:35:18Z")
Not everyone who is concerned about the presence of certain chemicals in our food, water, etc. is a kook. You think Chloramine is perfectly safe and fine until the truth comes to light and you develop health issues from it. I am by far not one who ever gets caught up in enviro-health issues but I have found myself entrenched. I developed severe chronic hives which I and my GP and allergist could not figure out the cause. One day I heard about Chloramine use in tap water and I stopped drinking tap water- immediately my hives reduced dramatically. My husband then installed Chloramine filters and my hives have further been reduced. It is clear that Chloramine has been causing my hives. I am a 28 year old women who is otherwise healthy, of the proper weight and exercises regularly. I have since learned what threat Chloramine is to the population and how expensive it is to filter it out. We must stop the use of Chloramine in our water. > [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](#): > > Actually, lots of municipalities get their water from underground sources, dedicated aquifers or wells. Cities don’t just stick a pipe into the nearest river and start slurping it up - it’ll probably be filthy! > > Does Germany not have the technology to prevent chlorine leaks? Are you really contending that in all the storage tanks, reservoirs and holding cisterns, your city’s drinking water never sits still? Pipes corrode, leak, and pit. Roots invade junctions and crack them open. Open reservoirs collect animal droppings and skinny-dippers’ filth. > > Cities, generally, don’t use water with “high bacteria content” and then dump in chemicals to make it hunky-dory. They find extremely clean, low-bacteria water and then ensure that it stays that way through the hundreds of miles of pipe which are obviously not sterile. Also remember that if your city’s been around for a while, chances are the water source is equally as old and may not completely ideal. > > Chemical treatment of water _very objectively_ reduces infectious disease. Chloramines are fantastic at their job and while, yes, they have health risks so will any effective biocide. > > This woo-woo anti-chemical hysteria is unfounded in reality and, at best, misleading. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/65 "2011-05-07T11:43:33Z")
> [@minicute](#): > > Not everyone who is concerned about the presence of certain chemicals in our food, water, etc. is a kook. > > You think Chloramine is perfectly safe and fine until the truth comes to light and you develop health issues from it. > > I am by far not one who ever gets caught up in enviro-health issues but I have found myself entrenched. > > I developed severe chronic hives which I and my GP and allergist could not figure out the cause. One day I heard about Chloramine use in tap water and I stopped drinking tap water- immediately my hives reduced dramatically. My husband then installed Chloramine filters and my hives have further been reduced. It is clear that Chloramine has been causing my hives. I am a 28 year old women who is otherwise healthy, of the proper weight and exercises regularly. > > I have since learned what threat Chloramine is to the population and how expensive it is to filter it out. > > We must stop the use of Chloramine in our water. There is no such thing as a filter that removes chloramine and only chloramine. These filters use activated carbon and remove all kinds of things including particulates and organics. Your presumption that chloramine is the culprit betrays your bias. It is possible that your reaction was indeed to chloramine, but your reaction is unusual enough that only a controlled study could determine the cause. I have no problem with my chloramine treated tap water. ---
**Author:** ![JulieMeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f08c70/32.png) [@JulieMeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JulieMeg)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/66 "2012-03-28T23:22:07Z")
I realize this is _anecdotal_, but I never had a problem with my skin until I moved to Redmond, WA where they use chloramine to treat the water. I now have a constant rash on my face and I believe it’s due to chemicals in the water. This really sucks because I’m stuck with showering with this water until we move and install a whole house water filtration system. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/67 "2012-03-28T23:31:46Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Its worse than that. Every single person who drinks this stuff will eventually DIE! That’s not necessarily due to the chloramine in the water, though. It’s the dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) they mix with the chloramine that does it. Every place I’ve lived, the water had some trace amount (and sometimes more than a trace amount) of DHMO in it. Google it, read, and be very afraid! ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/68 "2012-03-29T02:08:56Z")
Chloramine is used to kill zombies. Anyway, if it were really harmful (in trace amounts, anything up to and including water and oxygen are toxic in large enough quantities), I seriously doubt they would allow it to be used, and the benefits far outweigh the risks (a significant factor in the increase in life expectancy is clean drinking water). Also, I note several mentions that chlorine dissipates from water… how? It isn’t going to outgas when it is under pressure and in an enclosed area. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/69 "2012-03-29T02:36:49Z")
So is it true that inexpensive filters that work on Chlorine to improve taste of water, like in a [Brita pitcher filter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brita#Action), won’t remove chloramine? Does Chloramine affect the taste of water in the same way as Chlorine? ---
**Author:** ![tjbh35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@tjbh35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tjbh35)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/70 "2013-03-03T23:33:17Z")
I’m not 100% sure about either the safety or harm or chloramine…but I am noticing a change in a lot of my clients hair. I am a hairstylist working in North Harris County. I know a little about this subject because my husband used to be on our MUD water board. The use of chloramine started when the state mandated the conversion from underground water to surface water. The first sign of change I saw in my clients hair was a difference in color fading differently than before. The next and more drastic change was that a lot of my clients hair is becoming curly. It always starts at the back of the head and sometimes moves to the sides, but NEVER affects the top of the head. From a hairstylist with 30 years of experience, this has been the most drastic and obvious change in a large amount of my clients. Since Ammonia is what has been added to our water supply for people all over the Houston area and in different MUD Districts, I am making an assumption that Ammonia is the culprit of the changes I’m seeing. FOR THOSE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE HAIR INDUSTRY…AMMONIA IS/WAS USED IN MOST HAIR COLORING AND PERMING PRODUCTS, BUT THE INDUSTRY HAS STARTED CHANGING TO MAKE PRODUCTS LESS DAMAGING TO THE HAIR, CLIENT AND PLANET AND LESS LIKELY TO CAUSE ALLERGIC REACTIONS. Does anyone have any thoughts??? ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/71 "2013-03-04T00:09:35Z")
> [@tjbh35](#): > > The first sign of change I saw in my clients hair was a difference in color fading differently than before. The next and more drastic change was that a lot of my clients hair is becoming curly. It always starts at the back of the head and sometimes moves to the sides, but NEVER affects the top of the head. From a hairstylist with 30 years of experience, this has been the most drastic and obvious change in a large amount of my clients… > Does anyone have any thoughts??? As a hair stylist, have you ever seen any product, whether a bleaching agent or a dye that only affected the back and sides of all you clients’ hair and was about to curl only that part of their hair? ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/72 "2013-03-04T00:21:27Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > The normal process it: you have an area (usually mountainous) where it rains a lot, preferrably with forest. The rain water filters down through the forest earth (first filter), through the deeper earth layer (second filter) and through the rocks itself (third layer). After several week to months, the water is filtered and tapped at a certain level in the water tableau. Then it’s tested to make sure it’s clean and piped to the city. > > For those who don’t have mountains nearby, like e.g. the people on Boden Lake (city of Konstanz), they have a large area of beach set aside, with sand and pebbles, which filters the water (the lake is very very big, so things are diffused). Then, it’s tested, treated with ozone if necessary, and piped to the citizens. You do realize that in a great many areas of Canada and the US it would be basically impossible to find any mountainous forested areas or large areas of beach anywhere nearby a major city? ---
**Author:** ![tjbh35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@tjbh35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tjbh35)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/73 "2013-03-04T02:38:18Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > As a hair stylist, have you ever seen any product, whether a bleaching agent or a dye that only affected the back and sides of all you clients’ hair and was about to curl only that part of their hair? I’m not sure I understand your question Moriah. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/74 "2013-03-04T03:09:09Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Huh? Who said anyhting about surface waters? I thought we were talking about tap water, that is, drinking water? Do you not have a strict standard for drinking water in your country? Not only with regards to bacteria, but also for pesticides and so on? No, “every surface water” where I live are not sterile. We don’t want them sterile! We want the rivers to have the little crabs that indicate clear water! (Bio-indicaters). Bacteria are also bio-indicators. My home uses well water, drawn from an aquifer that filled during the last ice age. It is tested every 6 months. It naturally contains bacteria. The levels of these bacteria are well within safe limits, and do not include human-disease ones like, say, diphtheria or typhoid. (I still filter it because the mineral content is so high, but it’s healthy to drink even if the taste is off) We do have drinking water standards. They apply to both polluted and non-polluted sources equally. It’s actually cheaper to start with cleaner water, but even the most natural, untouched sources can equally naturally contain high levels of various bacteria and parasites. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/75 "2013-03-04T03:21:15Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Huh? Do you mean your water provider takes surface water (?!), dumps some disinfecting chemicals into it to kill bacteria, and delivers it to citizens as tap water??? Really? That’s a whoosh, right? Actually, there are quite a few other steps these days, including UV, use of settling tanks, and so forth. To characterize it as simply “dump chemicals into it” is misleading. Here in the US the exact process varies depending on location. In some places they even recycle sewage to produce drinking water. > [@](#): > > The normal process it: you have an area (usually mountainous) where it rains a lot, preferrably with forest. The rain water filters down through the forest earth (first filter), through the deeper earth layer (second filter) and through the rocks itself (third layer). After several week to months, the water is filtered and tapped at a certain level in the water tableau. Then it’s tested to make sure it’s clean and piped to the city. I believe the closest mountains to my current location are around a thousand kilometers away. Piping it to my location would be cost prohibitive. The only water sources are either open surface waters - which may be heavily polluted - or aquifers. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/76 "2013-03-04T03:30:12Z")
> [@tjbh35](#): > > I’m not sure I understand your question Moriah. It’s fairly simple. Since it is safe to assume your customers wash their entire head of hair not just the back/ends, logic would tend one to think that a chemical applied to the entire head would have the same effect on all the hair not just the back and ends. So the question is can you name any other chemical/substance that when applied to all of the hair on the head only changes some of it? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/77 "2013-03-04T03:38:58Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > And I still don’t understand why it’s easier to disinfect the water then treat the source of infection to stop all those bacteria from spreading around and getting into the water. North America has some water-borne things that are pretty much ubiquitous. Things like _giardia_ and _cryptosporidum_ are naturally occurring in most North America surface waters (and they aren’t bacteria, they are protozoans). While they cause only minor, transient illness in healthy adults (and sometimes not even that) they can do bad things to young children and the elderly, and can be lethal in the immuno-compromised. There is basically no way to find “clean” water sources because these are in almost all surface waters. There is no “source” of infection, these parasites are a normal part of the environment. They’re _already_ spread around, and were long before Europeans found the Americas. It’s entirely possible Europe doesn’t have these, which would simplify getting clean water sources. North America, however, needs to deal with them on a daily basis. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/78 "2013-03-04T11:54:09Z")
Psst…zombie alert. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/79 "2013-03-04T12:50:38Z")
So… chloramines will not only kill you, they’ll turn you into a zombie, too? ---
**Author:** ![AdamF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/adamf/32/6246_2.png) [@AdamF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AdamF)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374/80 "2013-03-04T15:28:27Z")
This seems quite relevant: > **[005S119.pdf](https://www.iwaponline.com/jwh/005/S119/005S119.pdf)** > > 1477 B It seems that residual chlorine is not necessary, if the source of water is already safe to drink and the water distribution is both new and well maintained. However, if you are stuck using surface water, residual chlorine is absolutely essential. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chloramine-treated-tap-water-going-to-kill-me/547374.md?page=5)