Does Distilled Water Have Chlorine In It?

"Why didn't you tell everybody they were drinking dead animal this week?" He said, "Don't worry we put more chlorine in you tap water!"

“After the first week, we cleaned out our water distiller and found 6 animal hairs in the boiling chamber. I called the city water treatment center and asked them, 'How come there are animal hairs in our water?' He said, "Oh I thought we took all that out." I asked, 'What was it? He said, "We couldn't tell it was too badly decomposed. I said, "Why didn't you tell everybody they were drinking dead animal this week?" He said, "Don't worry we put more chlorine in you tap water!" Luckily our Durastill water distiller filtered both the dead animal and chlorine out!” - Reed P.

Chlorine is something that everyone has heard of, yet very few actually know what it is and what it can do to your body. There are many conflicting views about chlorine and its presence in water, especially distilled water. Among other things, we are going to answer these question:

THE QUICK 30-SECOND ANSWER:

Does distilled water contain chlorine?

To put it simply, NO! Durastill Distilled Water does NOT contain chlorine. But low quality water distillation could not properly remove and filter out the chlorine.  There are a few factors to consider. Read the in-depth details below.

Does a water distiller remove chlorine?

Yes, but it depends.  YES a commercial-grade Durastill Water Distiller (made in USA) removes chlorine from your tap water. Durastill steam distillation combined with a VOC vent and NSF Certified Post-Carbon filter removes the maximum amount of chlorine from your water! But not all water distillers remove chlorine... they are not Made in the USA and are not as high of quality as Durastill.

THE IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE AND DETAILED EXPLANATION: 

How To Remove Chlorine From Water?

If you’ve done any research about chlorine, you may know that chlorine is a gas and therefore can travel through the steam during the distillation process. Because chlorine and other volatile gasses such as petroleum, oil, gasoline, and many pesticides are able to transfer across during distillation, all Durastill Water Distillers are fitted with additional filtration devices to block out anything that may distill over with the water. One such device is an activated post carbon filter, which has been proven to remove 99.9+% of chlorine when paired with distillation. While most carbon filters are known to become a breeding ground for bacteria and viruses, the post carbon filter cleans the water after it has been distilled, which means that bacteria, viruses, and other organic organisms have been killed and left behind in the boiling chamber. This keeps your post carbon filter free from any bacteria or virus that may have attempted to grow on it and allows the filter maximum efficiency when removing chlorine and other volatile gasses.

Chlorine is widely used for various purposes. Among other things, chlorine is put into swimming pools to regulate chemical levels. Do you want what’s in your pool in your drinking water? Have you ever tasted pool water? It probably doesn’t strike you as something you’d want to be putting into your body. Shockingly, even the highest mandatory chlorine level for pool water is lower than the legal chlorine levels for drinking water! Pool chlorine levels can be anywhere from 1ppm (part per million) chlorine to 3ppm chlorine, while drinking water is allowed up to 4ppm chlorine! High chlorine content is one of the reasons many restaurants serve lemons in their water, as lemon juice and chlorine neutralize each other, covering up the aftertaste chlorinated water leaves in your mouth.

And not only does chlorine taste bad, chlorinated water has also been proven to negatively affect your health. Chlorine causes irritation to the eyes, nose, and skin. Several studies have linked chlorine and other adverse byproducts called trihalomethanes (THMs) to cancers such as colon cancer, prostate cancer, and bladder cancer, as well as heart disease. Chlorine is used by many water treatment plants to disinfect the water because it is known to attack bacteria. However, chlorine is unable to distinguish between good and bad bacteria, and may also attack the good bacteria found in your digestive tract, leading to stomach aches, poor digestion, and other health problems.

As we stated before, chlorine is a gas. It is also a highly toxic gas. Even just inhaling chlorine gas can cause a plethora of problems, let alone drinking it.

Chlorine in tap water has become more of a concern lately and many people who don’t want to drink harmful chemicals are looking for an alternative. But what is the problem with chlorine in the first place?

What is chlorine?

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC):
“Chlorine is one of the most commonly manufactured chemicals in the United States. Its most important use is as a bleach in the manufacture of paper and cloth, but it is also used to make pesticides (insect killers), rubber, and solvents.
Chlorine is used in drinking water and swimming pool water to kill harmful bacteria. It is also used as part of the sanitation process for industrial waste and sewage.”
(Sources:https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/chlorine/basics/facts.asp)

Is chlorine really that big of a deal? If it is already in my water, then why is it a problem?

Well, chlorine actually has some very dangerous side effects. The CDC states that overexposure to chlorine can lead to some of these symptoms:
When chlorine gas comes into contact with moist tissues such as the eyes, throat, and lungs, an acid is produced that can damage these tissues.

• Burning pain, redness, and blisters on the skin if exposed to gas.
• Skin injuries similar to frostbite can occur if it is exposed to liquid chlorine.
• Fluid in the lungs (Pulmonary Edema)
• Nausea and vomiting
• Coughing and chest tightness

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated:
“Chlorine is a potent irritant to the eyes, the upper respiratory tract, and lungs… exposure to chlorine gas in workers has resulted in respiratory effects, including eye and throat irritation and airflow obstruction. Several human studies have investigated the relationship between exposure to chlorinated drinking water and cancer... These studies show an association between bladder and rectal cancer and chlorination byproducts in drinking water.”

Not only can chlorine make you sick, but (specifically chlorine that is in drinking water) has been found to cause bladder cancer! And worst of all, there is no antidote to chlorine exposure. The treatments include removing the chlorine as quickly as possible and treating the symptoms. The only way to prevent these effects, is to not be exposed to it in the first place.

So, yeah, chlorine can be a really big deal.

Why is it my water?
Chlorine is used to remove bacteria and viruses from our drinking water. While this idea is good in theory, chlorine can be just as damaging to us. Besides that, chlorine doesn’t remove everything.

The legal amount of chlorine in drinking water is 4 parts per million, and even that can be unhealthy. To put that in perspective, the legal amount of chlorine in a swimming pool is 1-3 parts per million. That means the water you shower in, clean with, and drink could have more chlorine than your pool does.

Does distilled water have chlorine in it?

Yes and no.
Yes, distilled water can have chlorine, because chlorine can turn gaseous and filter across. Some distillers do leave the chlorine in their final product because the don't have a voc vent and a NSF certified post-carbon filter. Durastill Distilled water does not have chlorine. Our distillers utilize a VOC vent combined with a NSF certified Durastill carbon post-filter that removes the chlorine steam distillation alone cannot.

(Sources:https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/chlorine.pdf, CDC | Facts About Chlorine,

 Answers to other Frequently Asked Questions:

Does distilled water have fluoride?

Does distilled water contain bacteria?