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Virtually all drinking water supplies are contaminated by a multitude of organisms, including bacteria and viruses. It is this way right out of the ground. Even falling rain contains bacteria that it picks up as it falls.

In addition to this, most drinking water that comes from municipal water supplies are further contaminated from storage tanks, pipes, and even from contaminated water tables from the water source.

Swimming pools and hot tubs also offer an ideal means of transferring harmful bacteria from one person to another, no matter how well filtered the water is or how often it is filtered.

The vast majority of these microscopic life forms are largely harmless. A few, however, are not. These can produce mild symptoms not unlike influenza, which is after all caused by a virus. At the other end of the spectrum, they can cause severe illnesses like dysentery, and can even result in death. Indeed, thousands of people die every year directly due to contaminated water supplies, and usually affecting the very young, the very old, and the weak, more than the rest of the population.

Chlorine counters much of this, because this chemical element is toxic to life. This is why chlorine bleach is one of the best sanitizing agents around. Yes, at sufficient strength and quantity, it will also kill people and animals. There is a means to prevent this however. Since it takes far less chlorine to kill very simple single celled creatures than it does to kill something that is far more complex, relatively small amounts of chlorine are used. Further, chlorine exists naturally as a gas, which doesn't bind well with other chemicals (part of the reason it is toxic). So chlorine added to water will escape back into the atmosphere in a short amount of time, and in such low concentrations that no harm is done...except to the bacteria.

Aquarium enthusiasts have known this for a long time, which is why, when setting up a fish tank, they will allow 1-2 days for the water to sit, before introducing the fish. Fish, being somewhat simpler in structure than humans, are much more reactive to the toxic effects of chlorine. But within 1-2 days, depending on the size of the tank, nearly all of the chlorine will have left the water, so it is no longer a danger.

The bottom line is that the reasons to add chlorine to water is to preserve the health of animals and people. After all, what good would it do to take even three showers a day, if you were showering in and drinking water that was full of harmful bacteria?

Learn more about this author, Rex Trulove.
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