Too much chlorine

Chlorine is commonly used to disinfect water, however, too much of it can cause serious health issues.

Recently the town folk of Gloucester north of Newcastle, have been told tap water is now safe to drink, after an earlier warning to avoid it because of a chlorine overdose in the town supply.

MidCoast Water issued an urgent alert to residents not to drink the water when there had been reports of some people burning their throats.

Schools, preschools, the hospital and local nursing home had been alerted by Midcoast Water which said the problem was caused by a failure in chlorination equipment at the Gloucester water treatment plant, causing high chlorine readings way above national standards.

One woman posted on Facebook that her daughter had a burnt throat while others complained about burns to their eyes and of experiencing migraines.

MidCoast Water said chlorine levels were still causing taste and odour issues and staff would continue flushing out the water supply network and have told Gloucester residents to flush their water pipes for at least 10 minutes before drinking the water.

Both our Doulton and the SCP Plus cartridges remove 99.5% of the chlorine from your water supply making it safe to drink in situations like this that could harm your health.