Things You Didn't Know About Drinking Water - Residual Chlorine

1. What is residual chlorine? It means that after chlorine is put into water, in addition to consuming a part of the chlorine through the interaction with bacteria, microorganisms, organic substances, inorganic substances, etc. in the water, there is still a part of the chlorine, and this part of the chlorine is called residual chlorine. 2. Potential harm of residual chlorine in water to human body 1. Why should chlorine be added to tap water? In order to ensure that tap water meets safety and hygiene requirements and avoid water-borne infectious diseases, disinfectants should be added to tap water during water purification to inactivate pathogenic microorganisms in the water. As an effective means of sterilization and disinfection, residual chlorine is still used by more than 80% of the world's water plants. Therefore, a certain amount of residual chlorine must be maintained in municipal tap water to ensure the safety of drinking water microbial indicators. 2. What harm does residual chlorine exceed the standard to the human body? Chlorine in tap water will produce carcinogens when heated: trihalomethanes, carbon tetrachloride, and chloroform. Poisoning clinical manifestations: acute poisoning. Patients with mild poisoning may experience dizziness, headache, nausea, chest tightness, drowsiness, staggering gait, etc.; in severe poisoning, patients may lose consciousness, or appear drowsy, even coma, convulsions, and even death. Chronic poisoning mainly manifests as neurasthenic syndrome, liver damage, digestive dysfunction, extremity osteolysis, skin damage, etc. In severe cases, it can even cause cancer: hepatic angiosarcoma caused by vinyl chloride has been listed as a national legal occupational disease. 3. Can the residual chlorine be 0? From factories to citizens' homes, tap water has to go through a long process of municipal pipe network, community pipe network, high-rise water tanks and many other links. The residual chlorine in the water must be used to 'deter' bacteria and germs. Free chlorine is not just 0. The current national standard is that the residual chlorine content of the water at the end of the pipe network is ≥0.05mg/L.