Disinfection of drinking water
Disinfection of drinking water is a necessary measure to eliminate disease-causing bacteria in drinking water. Not so long ago, thanks to disinfection, mankind passed the days when people were mowed down by epidemics of diseases spreading through water. The famous scientist, microbiologist Louis Pasteur said: "We drink 80% of our diseases." The list of diseases transmitted by microbes through water, when disinfection is not performed, is very impressive: cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever, poliomyelitis, hepatitis A, trachoma - and this is not a complete list.
Disinfection of drinking water can be domestic and industrial. Home disinfection is not necessarily done at home, but rather done with home remedies, the simplest, most affordable and effective of which is boiling. On the scale of supplying water to an entire settlement, boiling is, of course, difficult. Therefore, other methods are used to disinfect drinking water on an industrial scale. Microbial cleaning methods are divided into physical and chemical.
Chemical methods of disinfection of drinking water are the addition of chemicals to the water that cause the death of microorganisms. These are substances such as chlorine and its compounds (chlorine dioxide, sodium hypochlorite), ozone, silver ions. The physical methods of disinfection include exposure to ultraviolet radiation, gamma radiation, and ultrasonic waves. Each of these methods has advantages and disadvantages, but each of them successfully copes with the task of eliminating pathogenic microflora.
At present, chlorination is the main method for disinfecting drinking water in Russia and the countries of the post-Soviet space. Chlorine effectively destroys pathogens and is cheap to use, cheaper than all other methods. Of the shortcomings of the method, the
most often mentioned is the pathogenic effect of chlorine on the body of people who constantly consume water treated with it. It has been established that some chlorine compounds ingested with drinking water have mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. This means that they are able to lead to mutations in the cells of the body, degenerating them, and thus causing the appearance of malignant tumors.
It is important not to confuse disinfected water with purified water. Disinfected - the one in which the pathogenic microflora is killed. Purified - the one from which all harmful chemical compounds are removed.
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