Chlorine: The sources and dangers
History of Chlorine
In the year 1900, Herbert Dow, the founder of Dow Chemical, separated common salt to produce commercially valuable sodium hydroxide. In the process, the highly poisonous green gas (free chlorine) was released as a by-product by accident. Being a chemistry teacher, Mr. Dow, soon began mixing chlorine with other elements, starting what is known as "chlorine chemistry," that initiated the making of solvents, pesticides and many other useful but toxic chlorinated compounds.
One aspect of chlorinated chemicals is the strength of the bond created between chlorine and other elements. Although this bond makes chlorine an important ingredient for chemists when building new compounds, it is also one of the keys to understanding why chlorine is so hazardous. Once formed, chlorinated compounds are very persistent in the environment and hard to break down. Today there are about 15,000 chlorine-based products in commercial use.
Chlorinated hydrocarbons like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were used in electrical transformers instead of petroleum oils, which often were flammable. Non-flammable Perchloroethylene ("Perc") was used widely as a degreaser for cleaning dirty automobile parts and dirty linen ("dry" cleaning).
DDT was introduced in 1939 as a pesticide to kill malaria mosquitoes and prevent the spreading of this deadly disease. In her book ‘Silent Spring’, Rachel Carson has correctly predicted the environmental destruction that DDT in particular, and the chlorinated hydrocarbons in general, would cause. In the 1970s, chlorinated hydrocarbons were acknowledged as the suspected carcinogens that contaminated both the Love Canal and Times Beach, turning these communities into hazardous waste sites.
In the 1980s, mounting evidence suggested chlorinated hydrocarbons were dangerous not only to fish and birds, but to mammals, including us. Unstable organic halides, (VOXs), like chloroform and trichloroethane, were found to be Capable of causing cancer in small animals. Through the 1990s, the continuous stream of evidence highlights the fact that chlorinated hydrocarbons may disrupt human reproduction as they have shown to have done in birds and fish, and play a role in dramatic increases in breast and testicular cancer, a 50% decline in male sperm counts, and a host of other developmental disorders.
What is Chlorine?
Located at number 17 on the Periodic Table of the Elements, chlorine is a poisonous, yellow-green gas and is one of the most heavily used chemical agents of modern times. Since it is highly reactive and is rarely found in its pure form, chlorine has to be artificially made by sending an electrical current through salt water or melted salt. The electricity splits the salt molecules apart and creates chlorine.
As consumers, we know about chlorine mostly as a bleaching agent for paper, and as an ingredient in household cleaners. When immersed in a bath of concentrated chlorine, the natural colors of things like cotton fibers and wood pulp disappear, what remains is a bright white surface on which any dye or ink can be applied. Chlorine has the ability to bleach out color and remove stains and dirt in our laundry, and brighten whites.
Why is it Dangerous?
The extensive use of chlorine is causing widespread and extremely severe risks to our health and to the environment. Regrettably, this damage is not easily visible at first glance.
Researchers only with the help of special tools and methods can observe it. This fact that we cannot directly see the harmful effects of chlorine has prevented us from making an attempt to think about the possible dangers of using chlorine.
After all, chlorine is so widespread and is sold in every supermarket. True enough, but the scientific evidence gathered over a period of time tells us that it shouldn't be. Far from being a household helper, and industry's best chemical friend, using chlorine is something that should be stopped immediately.
