Even the smallest water supplies are now usually chlorinated. It is also extensively used in the production of paper products, dyestuffs, textiles, petroleum products, medicines, antiseptics, insecticides, foodstuffs, solvents, paints, plastics, and many other consumer products. Most of the chlorine produced is used in the manufacture of chlorinated compounds for sanitation, pulp bleaching, disinfectants, and textile processing. Further use is in the manufacture of chlorates, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, and in the extraction of bromine. Organic chemistry demands much from chlorine, both as an oxidizing agent and in substitution, since it often brings desired properties in an organic compound when substituted for hydrogen, as in one form of synthetic rubber.
Chlorine is a respiratory irritant.
The gas irritates the mucous membranes and the liquid burns the skin. As little as 3.5 ppm can be detected as an odor, and 1000 ppm is likely to be fatal after a few deep breaths. It was used as a war gas in 1915. Natural chlorine contains two isotopes. Sixteen other isotopes and isomers are known.