My online research has been challenging to separate out the corn starch or corn Derivatives that are obviously in chlorine weather in tap water or pools. There is medical support backing it but I would also like to hear from the wisdom from this sight. Still learning how to ask questions in the correct format. Thank you for your time.


closed as unclear what you're asking by hBy2Py, Zhe, Mithoron, Todd Minehardt, MaxW Jul 11 '17 at 17:50


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    $\begingroup$ "Trace of corn in chlorine?" I'm sorry, could you be a bit clearer on what you mean my this? Furthermore, why bring up polycaprolactone? $\endgroup$ – paracetamol Jul 11 '17 at 15:14
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    $\begingroup$ Just trying to find out if there is any corn product of any kind in chlorinated tap water and in chlorinated pools. Corn can be used as a declumping agent from what I understand $\endgroup$ – Robbe Jul 11 '17 at 15:20
  • $\begingroup$ Containing corn is kind of a weird way to put it. You'd need to be exposed to some macromolecule in corn (or smaller I guess if you have the haptens). In tap water, molecular chlorine is likely used, so it is unlikely that any corn allergen survived... $\endgroup$ – Zhe Jul 11 '17 at 15:21
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    $\begingroup$ @Zhe Apparently pool chlorine is supplied in tablet form, e.g. this. I suppose there could be corn-based excipients used in the pressing of such tablets? Not sure how to determine this w/o looking at the ingredients of each product, though. I agree municipal water treatment is likely to use molecular Cl2, though. $\endgroup$ – hBy2Py Jul 11 '17 at 15:28
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    $\begingroup$ Robbe, there's no conclusive answer here. Corn residues would only come from excipients used while pressing tablets of chlorine chemicals, and all of the products I've seen claim to be pure chemicals. Further, the concentration of corn residues would be less than that of the added chlorine, and the amount of chlorine itself in treated waters is quite small. It's much more likely that your son is reacting to the chlorine itself, which some people can be sensitive to, and not any trace corn ingredients. $\endgroup$ – hBy2Py Jul 11 '17 at 16:01

Chlorine itself will not trigger a corn allergy. That's simply because chlorine is a simple molecule and corn is a complex smörgåsbord of complex organic molecules. However, pools do not typically use pure chlorine gas. They use a compound such as troclosene sodium which is a powder that releases chlorine as it dissolves. The manufacturing of such substances may include additives that could cause problems. In particular, they may use cornstarch as an anti-caking agent.

Given that the material your son may be having issues with is not an active ingredient, tracking the problem down may be difficult. Different manufacturers may use different mixtures. It's entirely possible that one supplier might use cornstarch for anti-caking, while another uses sodium silicate. Wikipedia's page on anti-caking additives doesn't even list cornstarch, so its reasonable to believe its rare in such products, but that doesn't mean your local pool's particular vendor doesn't use it. You'd have to do some digging.

It is far less likely that tap water will have similar issues. There's a simple reality that if drinking water caused harm to those with corn allergies, you wouldn't hear it from "hundreds of people," you would hear it from the doctor because it would be documented scientific fact. I would recommend asking your doctor about the feasibility of such a source of corn derivatives. That being said, do note that many bottled water sources are actually municipally sourced, meaning all they're giving you is tap water.

An interesting test (if you're willing to experiment!) would be to use an activated carbon filter such as those in Brita water pitchers instead of bottled water. The activated carbon will remove the chlorine, but will most likely not interact with any corn derivatives in the water. If your son has trouble with that brita water, but not bottled water, that's an indication that you may indeed be right about what's in the water. If your son can drink the brita water just fine, that suggests it might actually be the chlorine that your son is responding to, independent of any corn allergy.

(Obviously use common sense: as a parent, your child isn't a guinea pig. Learn what you can from experiments, but don't subject your child to anything life threatening in the name of science. That'd just be silly!)

  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for the great information. Also I can only use certain bottled water since a lot of them are tap water and some of the plastic bottles have corn derivatives in the plastic. $\endgroup$ – Robbe Jul 11 '17 at 16:19
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    $\begingroup$ Note to editors: please don't remove disclaimers. People tend to put them there for a reason. $\endgroup$ – Cort Ammon Jul 11 '17 at 16:21
