Thanks for supporting Marketplace this Giving Tuesday. If you missed it - you can still contribute to powering public media! Donate Now!
BBC World Service

There’s more to chlorine than just swimming pools

Kai Ryssdal May 12, 2014
HTML EMBED:
COPY
BBC World Service

There’s more to chlorine than just swimming pools

Kai Ryssdal May 12, 2014
HTML EMBED:
COPY

It keeps your pools clean and safe, it’s half of the compound that makes up table salt, and — in its purest form — it can kill you.

And those are only three of the things chlorine can do.

“There are something like 15,000 chlorine-based chemicals that are used in industry,” says the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt.

One of the best examples is PVC–polyvinyl chloride, the durable plastic that the construction industry uses heavily. Over 70 percent of PVC makes up basically everything: drain pipes, vinyl floors, roofing products, and double-glazed window panes.

There’s a funny side effect to its ubiquity in construction: Demand is tied to property booms and busts.

And because the supply of sodium is tied to that of chlorine–remember, table salt is made of both–a collapse in the housing market could make staple products that rely on sodium, such as soap and paper, more expensive.

As for the chlorine in swimming pools, it’s not actually pure chlorine. It’s actually a chlorine compound called “chloramine,” which is created when chlorine reacts with organic substances in the water.

Those organic substances? Let’s just leave it at this: there’s a reason why the chlorine smell in the pool is much stronger when the pool is full of kids.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.