Chlorine in drinking water

I have heard much about the pros and cons of having our drinking water treated with chlorine. On one one had it kills almost all microorganisms, basically sterilizing the water, and on the other hand it can react with organics naturally present in the water to create by-products that may be cancer causing. Cancer, of course, sucks but the microorganisms eliminated during the chlorination process are no joke either: cholera, typhoid fever, and others. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. I don't think the system is going to change soon, we are probably going to have chlorine in our water for some time to come. So what to do about it? A while back I seem to remember someone telling me that you can rid your tap water of chlorine (and, its odor and taste) simply by letting it stand uncovered for a day or so. So, I started doing just that. I noticed the difference immediately. Water left standing tasted fresher and cleaner. Now I'm spoiled, I can't go back to drinking straight tap water. I guess you can use a carbon filter (i.e. Brita) to accomplish the same thing.

It's hard to gauge the health benefits of this sort of change. Considering the studies seem to be all on long term health impact. I read the book "Free to Fly" a while back and in it the author basically recounted a story of how a character reacted to a glass of tap water after abstaining from tap water, to avoid chlorine, for a long period of time. I don't think this is a foreign concept; that, once a harmful component of diet, in this case chlorine (possibly), is removed for a length of time, then introduced again suddenly, that a person could have a shock-type reaction to it. Then again maybe I'm just talking out of my ass. Anyway, my experience with chlorine is certainly not notable in any way. I started letting my water stand at the same time as I made all sorts of other adjustments to my lifestyle in the hopes of managing my AS. As it turns out they worked. Well something worked. I'm not sure what exactly. Maybe it has something to do with the removal of chlorine. Maybe that is a small part of my health turnaround. Maybe it is a placebo. I don't care. The risk is negligible and the cost (in terms of dollars and effort) is right, so why not?

Breakfast:
4 slices of bacon
gala apple

Snack:
sugar snap peas
handful of almonds

Lunch:
roast beef
carrots
red pepper

Snack:
Ultimate Crunch
few more almonds

Dinner:
beef meatballs
big salad
sweet potato fries

Snack:

Drink:
water

Symptoms:
Hard to tell if I'm stiff from arthritis or because I had an intense workout yesterday.