Affordable-Water-Ionizers.com Is Affordable Nutrition For All

Why You Need A Shower Filter

Return to Shower Filters Page

Millions of people take a bath every day with water that is toxic. This is ironic considering that the act of taking a bath is supposed to make a person clean. Chlorine is a necessary evil. Without it the water would be full of bacteria and actually look dirty.  Most public water systems are treated with chlorine to remove bacteria, but chlorine is a toxin itself. In World War I Chlorine was used by the Germans to kill enemy solders. It attacked the lungs by causing a burning sensation chest pains then death by suffocation. Chlorinated bath water not only kill bacteria, it also attacks your  hair, skin, and lungs leaving hair dry and brittle and making your skin flaky and itchy. It can also trigger negative reactions in children, the elderly, and people with chlorine-sensitivity.

Listen to what the following experts have said about chlorine.

"Cancer risk among people drinking chlorinated water is 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine."
US Council of Environmental Quality

"Chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of modern times. While it prevented epidemics of one disease, it was creating another. Two decades ago, after the start of chlorinating our drinking water in 1904, the present epidemic of heart trouble, cancer and senility began."
Saginaq Hospital - Dr. J.M. Price

"The drinking of chlorinated water has finally been officially linked to an increased incidence of colon cancer. An epidemiologist at Oak Ridge Associated Universities completed a study of colon cancer victims and non-cancer patients and concluded that the drinking of chlorinated water for 15 years or more was conducive to a high rate of colon cancer."
Health Freedom News, January/February 1987.

"Scientists discovered that chlorine reacted with organic material in water to produce hundreds of chemical by-products, several of which have proved in animal studies to be carcinogenic."
U.S. News and World report - July 29, 1991

"Drinking chlorinated water may as much as double the risk of bladder cancer."
National Cancer Institute - Kenneth Cantor

"Long-term drinking of chlorinated water appears to increase a person's risk of developing bladder cancer as much as 80%," according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Some 45,000 Americans are diagnosed every year with bladder cancer.
St. Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press, December 17, 1987.

Below please find an excerpt from a very informative article on the subject of chlorinated water in the shower from the Australian magazine, Nature & Health Vol. 10 No. 4., Issue Summer 1989. Pages 44-49.

Chlorinated Water and Unknown Hazards of the Shower

There is another side to the chlorine-water story. When we return from a gym workout or a jogging session or a game of squash, not only are we thirsty but we usually shower or bathe. We have been taught that cleanliness and health go together, and indeed they do, when chemical-free water is used. When chlorinated water is used, however, bathing may be much less healthy than we ever supposed.

Gasses are as a rule less soluble in hot water, and when water is heated or boiled dissolved gasses are released. Boiling water is as we noted earlier a way in which the free chlorine content in water is greatly reduced, the chlorine escaping into the air. When we have a hot shower or run a bath we can sometimes smell the chlorine released as it escapes from the hot water. In a confined shower recess, however, especially one with poor ventilation, the chlorine escapes from the water as we continue the hot shower and steadily increases in concentration in the air we breathe. The olfactory threshold for chlorine is about 3.5 PPM (parts per million) so when we can smell chlorine the concentration is already above this level. The lethal concentration for ten-minute exposure is about 600 PPM and we suggest that regularly taking hot showers with chlorinated water could pose a health risk. Chlorine causes pulmonary edema, and it would seem likely that regular exposure to chlorine gas even at low levels such as in normal showering may reduce the oxygen transfer capacity of the lungs. This could be a critical factor for athletes and for others prone to heart failure.

Another aspect to be considered is our skin. Our skin is an important protective barrier for our bodies. When we shower with chlorinated water we are essentially exposing our skin to a relatively large volume of a dilute chlorine solution. Some of this chlorine reacts with the oils in the skin to form chlorinated compounds and it is these compounds which may then be absorbed by the body. It seems very likely, considering the strong oxidizing power of chlorine, that regular exposure to chlorinated water serves also to promote the aging process of the skin, not unlike extended exposure to sunlight. Moreover, chlorine may actually enhance the aging effects of ultraviolet radiation by reinforcing the process of cell deterioration.

Another skin factor to be considered with the destruction by chlorine of the natural bacteria balance on our skin. Our skin has an ecology, all of its own, which needs to be preserved in order to maintain healthy skin and its associated beauty. 

REFERENCES

1. Hodges L., Environmental Pollution, (N.Y. : Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 2nd Ed., 1977, p. 189).

2. Llewllyn, W. J., Journal American Medical Association, Vol. 146, No. 13, 1951, P. 1273.

3. Sinclair, H.M. (Cited by Clark,L., Get Well Naturally, N.Y.: ARC Books, 1971, P.327).

4. Passwater, R.A., Super-Nutrition for Healthy Hearts, N.Y.: Jove Publications Inc., 1987, pp.155 - 156).

5. Price, J.M., Coronaries, Cholesterol, Chlorine, Banhadlog Hall, Tyliwch, Llandridloes: Pyramid Publications Ltd., 1984, pp. 32,33).

6. "Atherosclerosis may start with cell proliferation" Journal American Medical Association. Vol. 227,No.7, 1974,p.734).

7. Revis, N.W., McCauley P., Bull R., and drinking water disinfectants to plasma cholesterol and thyroid hormone levels in experimental studies’, Proc. National Academy of Science, USA Vol. 83, March 1986, p. 1485. p. 1489. 

8. "Preliminary Assessment of Suspected Carcinogens in Drinking Water' Report to Congress, US Environmental Protection Agency, Washing D.C., 1975.

9. "Water Contaminated Throughout US", Chemical & Eng. News, 28 April, 1075,p.19.

10. Dowty, B., Carlisle, D. Laseter, J.L. "Halogenated Hydrocarbons in New Orleans Drinking Water and Blood Plasma", Science,Vol. 187, 1975, pp.75-77.

11. Pate, T., Harris, R.H. Epstein, S.S., "Drinking Water and Cancer Mortality in Louisiana", Science, Vol. 193, 1976, pp.55-57.

12. Trehy, M.L. and Bieber, T.I., "Detection, Identification and Quantitative Analysis of Dihaloacetonitriles in Chlorinated Natural Waters?, in Keith, L.H., (Ed.) Advances in Identification and Analysis.

     [top of page]

The statements enclosed herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The products mentioned on this site are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Information and statements made are for education purposes and are not intended to replace the advice of your family doctor.