At regulated levels, chlorine and chloramine are used because they prevent waterborne disease. That public-health benefit is large. The household concerns are usually about taste, odor, skin or eye irritation for some people, plumbing interactions, and the byproducts that disinfectants can create when they react with material already in the water.
Key Takeaways
- CDC says low levels of chlorine and chloramine in public tap water are unlikely to make most people sick and are used specifically to keep water microbiologically safe.
- Taste and odor complaints are common, especially with chlorine, and some people feel more sensitive to those changes than others.
- EPA notes that chloramine can change water chemistry in ways that affect lead and copper in plumbing if corrosion is not controlled well.
- The longer-term regulatory concern is often disinfection byproducts, such as TTHMs and HAA5, not the disinfectant residual alone.
- For most households the choice is not no disinfectant versus disinfectant. It is safe disinfection with controlled byproducts versus greater risk from waterborne germs.
What Usually Deserves More Attention
If a household is worried about municipal chlorine or chloramine, utility monitoring data for DBPs, lead, and copper is often more useful than chasing taste alone. That is especially true when a utility has recently switched disinfectants or changed its seasonal treatment operations.