When Drinking Water Became Safer

“The Chlorine Revolution”

Presented by: Dr. Michael J. McGuire, PE

October 15, 2018

4:30 to 5:30 PM EDT, Olmsted E306 

Free Webinar: Register Online

Imagine living in a world without chlorine disinfection of drinking water. It would be a scary place. You would have no idea when a dreaded disease might strike you down or strike down your children or other family members. This is the world that everyone in the U.S. lived in at the turn of the twentieth century.” The introduction of continuous chlorine disinfection to the Jersey City, New Jersey, water supply on September 26, 1908, immediately cut the local death rate from typhoid fever in half, and ultimately was forced to zero nationally.

How did the decision to disinfect the first U.S. public water supply come about, and how was it possible for hundreds of U.S. cities to adopt chlorination in just a few years?

Penn State Harrisburg and the Chlorine Chemistry Division of the American Chemistry Council are pleased to announce a public health webinar by Dr. Michael J. McGuire, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the award-winning author of The Chlorine Revolution: Water Disinfection and the Fight to Save Lives. Published by the American Water Works Association, Dr. McGuire’s book details the events leading to the first continuous use of chlorine (at less than one part per million), which, in conjunction with water filtration, revolutionized the treatment of drinking water in the United States. It also highlights the courage and perseverance of a still largely unknown New Jersey physician whose tireless efforts to improve public health changed the world.

Webinar hosted by:  Penn State Harrisburg Graduate Programs in Environmental Engineering Environmental Pollution Control Civil Engineering