A study conducted by UC Berkeley scientists shows it is safe to drink water treated with chlorine.
Chlorine is often added to drinking water as a disinfectant, yet little is known about its effects on the gut microbiome, according to a UC Berkeley news release. The study, published in Nature Microbiology, found that chlorinated water reduced child diarrhea by 23% without damaging the gut microbiome, according to campus civil and environmental engineering assistant professor Amy Pickering.
“I think the results are reassuring considering that chlorination is one of the most widely used water treatment methods in the world,” Pickering said in an email.
Pickering led the team with Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology researcher Tim Julian as co-principal investigators, working alongside co-authors from places such as Stanford University, Tufts University and Bangladesh’s International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research.
According to the news release, the gut microbiome consists of important microorganisms such as beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract, which support overall health. The study, conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh, compared the gut microbiomes of children living in communities with installed chlorination devices versus those without.
The study found that children who drank chlorinated water had significantly higher beneficial gut bacteria. Some populations who drank chlorinated water even had more than twice the amount of beneficial bacteria compared to those who did not, the release adds.
“Chlorination did not disrupt the developing gut microbiome of children receiving treated water,” Pickering said in the email. “It was also nice to see increased abundance of several bacterial species among children drinking chlorinated water that have been linked to beneficial gut health.”
Researchers randomized children to receive either an automated chlorine dose or a vitamin C dose — which acted as an active control, or a treatment with known, effective impact — in the randomized controlled trial, Pickering said. While the whole study spanned 18 months, the chlorine intervention ran for about one year before stool samples were collected from the children, Pickering added.
The results are significant in helping children in low-income countries who do not have access to safe drinking water. According to the news release, one in four people do not have access to safe drinking water, which leads to issues like diarrhea which must be treated with antibiotics — which in turn can impact long-term health.
The study’s findings around the safety of chlorinated water can thus improve diarrhea and antibiotic issues for children in low-income countries.
“Chlorination is used worldwide to disinfect water and prevent recontamination of drinking water,” Pickering said in the email. “These results support the use of chlorination as a low-cost approach to increase access to safe water globally.”
Cindy Liu is an academics and administration reporter. Contact her at [email protected], and follow her on Twitter at @_CindyLiu_.
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