WHO increases safe chlorine levels in drinking water.

[Colin_T]

The World health Organisation (WHO) has increased the "safe" level of chlorine in drinking water. It used to be 2mg/L (ppm) but they recently increased it to 5mg/L. They are saying it's safe for most people. I disagree and can't drink the tap water here in Western Australia when it's at 5mg/L and have to leave the tap water to stand for several weeks before it doesn't hurt my stomach and make me burp heaps when I drink it.

I had issues with tap water years ago when I was breeding fish and all the fry were dying straight after they hatched even though they were in water that had been dechlorinated (at a standard dose rate) and aerated for a couple of days. After a year of complaining to the Water Corporation they sent out a guy to test the water and he said it had 7.5mg/L of chlorine in, which at the time was 3.5 times more than the safe recommended level. The Water Corp reduced the chlorine back to 2mg/L and the fish fry stopped dying. However, lately they had been increasing it and now (2 weeks ago) they told me they are using the new levels recommended by the WHO.

Everyone who keeps fish needs to find out how much chlorine or chloramine is in your water supply and make sure you add enough dechlorinater to neutralise all of the chlorine or chloramine. Most dechlorinaters have a dose rate but that is for 2mg/L of chlorine, not 5mg/L, and double that for chloramine. If you are unsure, contact your water supply company and see how much chlorine or chloramine is in the water.

 

[MaloK]

In addition to chlorine and chloramine, not using enough can also lead to high copper level in the aquarium.

If you wonder why your shrimps die ? Take the copper test. Admissible level for human consumption is like 33 times higher than an invertebrate can tolerate. The normal level in Canada... Very close to or exceeding acute lethal concentrations 50% for some species, meaning a significant percentage of shrimp would die instantly.

It's really the only product that overdosing is never a bad thing.

 

[seangee]

They aslo think 50ppm nitrates are safe, unless of course you are an infant or pregnant woman!

 

[Oldspartan]

Many many years ago when we lived in town the water was chlorinated. We used to boil the water we were going to drink. It removed the chlorine and we kept a 2.5 gallon jug in the fridge.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

@Colin_T

I am surprised you do not know that aerating the water outgasses the chlorine faster. Here is what I would suggest, get two pitchers. Fill them both with tap water and run an airstone in each. You can tatse or use a chlorine test to know when the water is OK for yu to accept to drink.

Then when you have finished one pitcher, refill and aerate it while you are drinking from the other. This way you will always have one container ready to drink. Here is the Google AI explanation:

Chlorine Evaporation:
Chlorine is a volatile compound, meaning it readily turns into a gas. When exposed to air, it naturally evaporates from the water.

• Aeration's Role:
  Aeration, whether through a pump, airstone, or even just a waterfall, increases the rate at which chlorine gas can escape the water by increasing the surface area exposed to the air.
  
  
  
• Factors Affecting Speed:
  The speed of chlorine removal is influenced by several factors, including the amount of aeration, the initial chlorine concentration, the water temperature, and whether the water is treated with chlorine or chloramine (a more stable form of chlorine).

 

[MaloK]

Yes it's true, but most of the time the residual high chlorine is from chloramine not dosed properly and sometimes added with it, the chlorine trapped will resist boiling and need weeks to break down like Colin experienced.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Colin specifically mentioned his problem was chlorine, not chloramine,
AI Overview

The claim that the World Health Organization (WHO) has increased the "safe" level of chloramine in drinking water is not supported by the provided search results. Instead, the information indicates the following:

• WHO's existing guideline for monochloramine is 3 mg/L (3000 µg/L).
• WHO is considering not establishing a specific guideline value for chloramines in the future, based on recent studies suggesting low toxicity of monochloramine at levels found in drinking water.
• The health effect observed in earlier studies, which contributed to setting the 3 mg/L guideline, may have been due to decreased water consumption related to taste aversion rather than direct toxicity.

 

[mark4785]

I don’t even dechlorinate my water and my adult discus and fry are just fine. Same for when I top the koi pond up; I never dechlorinate.

 

[GaryE]

I dechlorinate for my breeding fish, as I find chlorine will stop breeding with some species for 2-3 days. But otherwise, since I use a hose to fill and have basic chlorine, not chloramines, I use the hose and agitate the water.

I don't have terribly chlorinated water. The WHO may have raised the limits (what does that say about drinking water pollution...), but that doesn't mean we'll all face higher levels. I'm fortunate to have clean sources for my city water - not everyone has that. So what I do may not work for everyone.

 

[AJ356]

I don’t even dechlorinate my water and my adult discus and fry are just fine. Same for when I top the koi pond up; I never dechlorinate.

If you suspect your source water has chlorine or chloramine, there really is no excuse for this. Just because your fish look okay... plus there is the heavy metals

 

[mark4785]

If you suspect your source water has chlorine or chloramine, there really is no excuse for this. Just because your fish look okay... plus there is the heavy metals

Well the discus fish are completely happy and chose to spawn in non-dechlorinated tap water. There is no excess slime-coat and all fish are eating. Same thing with my koi; they had offspring.

 

[Colin_T]

They aslo think 50ppm nitrates are safe, unless of course you are an infant or pregnant woman!

Yeah that's a crock of poopy that one is. They claim any level of nitrite is unsafe and causes cancer but nitrate is fine right up to 50ppm.

 

[Colin_T]

I don't have terribly chlorinated water. The WHO may have raised the limits (what does that say about drinking water pollution...), but that doesn't mean we'll all face higher levels. I'm fortunate to have clean sources for my city water - not everyone has that. So what I do may not work for everyone.

That is something I have been thinking about too. If the World Health Organisation thinks we need to increase chlorine levels to 5mg/L after having it at 2mg/L for the last 80 years, what is in the water now that we need to kill?

Are they concerned about viruses like Covid19, drug resistant bacteria, or something else we aren't being told about?

 

[Colin_T]

@Colin_T

I am surprised you do not know that aerating the water outgasses the chlorine faster. Here is what I would suggest, get two pitchers. Fill them both with tap water and run an airstone in each. You can tatse or use a chlorine test to know when the water is OK for yu to accept to drink.

I do know about aerating water to remove chlorine. It didn't work when I kept fish and the chlorine level was 7.5mg/L. I literally had to add a double dose of dechlorinater and vigorously aerate the water for a week just so I didn't kill adult fish. The fry still died using this water after a week with aeration and dechlorinater. I'm pretty sure there is something else in the water here that is contributing to the problems but the Water Corp says they only add chlorine and fluoride.

As for dechlorinating the tap water now, I don't have the money to buy an air pump, airline & airstone. If my rent goes up again I am back out on the street and that's where I will die. I can't afford a water filter either. I am simply using old juice bottles and letting them stand for a week or two before drinking the water in them.

 

[Magnum Man]

I think the chloramine doesn't gas out the same as chlorine, so bubbling won't work as well, and that's probably why municipalities have gone to that...

I love my untreated well water, although I likely have higher nitrates from having crop land all around our building site, and the well...

we pretty much drink all RO water, right now, and that's the reason for the commercial sized unit, for my aquariums