Why Do I smell bleach when there is none? The water’s bleach smell might have got in your nose, sometimes in a light smell，sometimes in a strong one，you might have the necessary to check your drinking water in your home, it is with a lot of bleach inside. Usually our drinking water would get bleach process in a water factory before it flows to our home, and it is feasible that the water we drink with bleach smells. While when you feel a strong bleach smell, you need to be careful about it, your water is not healthy to drink. First let’s see what is bleach.
What is Bleach?
Sodium hypochlorite is the most widely used and most common bleaching agent in daily life, which is why it is also known as ordinary bleach. The smell of bleach is typically a strong chlorine odor or the smell of disinfectant. This scent is pungent, similar to the smell often encountered in swimming pools.
Bleach is generally a strong oxidizing agent with strong oxidizing power. Adding a small amount or an appropriate amount of bleach to the water body has the effect of sterilizing and disinfecting. After the bleaching powder absorbs water, it can not only release atomic oxygen, but also a large amount of chlorine. If it is too much, it will poison all the organisms in the water. Generally, there is chlorine in tap water. Chlorine is a disinfectant, and so is bleaching powder. Now let’s find out why does water taste like bleach, and what’s the dangers.
Why Does My Water Taste Like Bleach So Bad?
The reason that water taste like bleach is because that our drinking water is from some lake, which can only be drank after blanch process. In the process of water treatment by waterworks, in order to ensure that microorganisms in the water do not reproduce or eliminate some pathogenic bacteria, it is needed to add a certain amount of chlorine. And during the water transportation to our homes, there are some retained chlorine, which are the blames that make you smell or taste bleach. According to drinking water standards, the chlorine content must be ≥0.3mg/L when leaving the factory, the tip content must be ≥0.05mg/L, and the maximum limit cannot exceed 2mg/L.
Therefore, in order to ensure water quality, the waterworks add chlorine that meets the requirements, when the content is slightly higher, there will be a pungent taste, and long term of exposure to it, human beings will get in danger of different diseases.
What are the Dangers of Bleach to Human Beings?
When you are asking the question that why do i smell bleach when there is none, you need to be careful with this, bleach powder contains calcium chloride, calcium hypochlorite and other ingredients, which will produce chlorine gas when combined with water, which are harmful substances to the body.
Occasionally inhaling the smell of bleach will not have a great impact on the health of the body, but if the body inhales a large amount of bleach for a long time, it will easily damage the skin and mucous membranes, cause poisoning, and cause cancer.
- Damage to skin and mucous membranes: Bleach is highly corrosive, and the body can easily erode oral mucosa, eyelid mucous membranes, nasal mucous membranes, etc. if the body inhales the smell of bleach. Therefore, you must wear gloves, masks, etc. when using bleach to reduce the damage to the skin and mucous membranes caused by the smell of bleach.
- Poisoning: Chlorine gas poisoning is easily induced after the body inhales the smell of bleach water for a long time, resulting in severe cough, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, chest tightness, shortness of breath and other discomfort symptoms, and severe cases may cause death. Patients need to leave the scene in time. Those with mild symptoms can drink plenty of water and defecate more, which can effectively relieve symptoms. Those with severe symptoms need to go to the hospital for gastric lavage, oxygen infusion and other emergency treatment.
- Carcinogenicity: Bleach water contains many carcinogens, such as sodium hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite, etc. Therefore, long-term inhalation of the smell of bleach water is likely to cause cancer risk. When using bleach, dilute it with water, wear masks, gloves, etc., and keep the room ventilated.
What to Do With the Problem That Tap Water Tastes Like Bleach?
Plan A：Purify Water By Boiling
The peculiar smell in tap water is the residual bactericidal substance left over from the process of water treatment by waterworks. This water meets the national drinking water standard and can be used with confidence. The smell usually dissipates after leaving it for a period of time. Boil it and drink it directly. If you are worried, buy an under-the-kitchen water purifier and use it at home, which can filter out the smell.
Plan B: Purify Water By a Water Filter
Removal of residual chlorine by a water filter: A water filter is highly recommended to filter Chlorine gas out in water. There’s a powerful activated carbon filter inside, they are highly effective to Chlorine gas molecules, which are larger than water molecules, so residual chlorine is more easily adsorbed to the surface of activated carbon than water molecules, allowing water molecules to adsorb from activated carbon.
In addition, the removal of residual chlorine in water by activated carbon is actually the work of both physical adsorption and chemical action. In the initial stage of contact between activated carbon and residual chlorine, it is mainly due to adsorption; when the adsorption is balanced, the concentration of residual chlorine in water decreases due to chemical action.
The following are the chemical formula of chlorine removal by activated carbon filter:
- HClO + C → CO2 + Cl − + H+
- OCl - + C → CO2 + Cl −
How Does a Great Water Filter Deals with Tap Water Tastes Like Bleach?
A water filter is especially suitable for a family daily water use, where the water has bad taste like bleach or some others, after you know the construction you will understand it.
- PP Cotton - First Station: PP cotton filter as the first station, it is used to filter large particles such as colloid, rust, and sand;
- Activated Carbon Filter - the Second Station: used to absorb heavy metals and residual chlorine
- RO Membrane - the Last Station: It can filter out harmful substances with a diameter greater than 0.0001 micron, including bacteria and viruses, not to mention other large harmful substances, and filter out pure water, which can be safely drunk.
T1-5 stage under sink RO water filter for drinking water is truly recommended for a big family, with all three protectors in ONE water filter, problems like tap water tastes like bleach will stay away from you.