The quality of our drinking water is a major determinant of our health and wellbeing. It is important to consider not only the presence of pathogens or contaminants, but also the routine addition of chemicals that may cause us harm. Chlorine is a chemical typically used as a disinfectant in public water supplies as an effective way to reduce the level of pathogenic bacteria in our drinking water. (1)
Unfortunately, this chemical, and other common chemical disinfectants, may have a damaging impact on our bodies’ beneficial bacteria as well.
When chlorine is used as a water treatment, it combines with organic matter to form compounds called trihalomethanes (THMs), also known as disinfectant byproducts. One of the most common THMs formed is chloroform, which is a known carcinogen. (2) Other THMs formed include the di- and trichloramines formed when chloramine is used as a disinfecting agent. (3) These compounds are toxic when consumed, inhaled, or applied to the skin.
Research conducted on the health effects of chlorinated drinking water have demonstrated a variety of toxicity issues. Several studies have found that communities using chlorinated or chloraminated drinking water have an increased risk of bladder, kidney, and rectal cancers. (4, 5, 6) THMs from chemically treated water have been associated with a variety of poor birth outcomes, such as spontaneous abortion, birth defects, and low birth weight. (7) Chlorine and chloramine vapors are associated with greater risk of asthma, and may damage the mucosal lining of the respiratory tract. (8) Free radicals in chlorinated water have been linked to liver malfunction, weakening of the immune system and pre-arteriosclerotic changes in arteries. (9)
While there hasn’t been substantial research on the topic, it’s reasonable to assume that chlorinated water adversely affects beneficial intestinal flora. Chlorine is a powerful antimicrobial agent, and is an effective pesticide against many different strains of bacteria. (10) The compounds in disinfected water may be able to reach the gut not only through our drinking water, but also through daily showers and baths.
A recent post at the Food Renegade blog (11) brought this disturbing theory to light, not only highlighting the harmful effects of chlorinated drinking water, but emphasizing the possibly greater effect that showers and baths could have on our intestinal flora. As we know, there’s a strong connection between asthma, acne, autoimmune conditions and the health of our gut flora. We might speculate that dysbiosis induced or made worse by excess chlorine exposure could contribute to these conditions.
Showering and bathing in chlorinated water may expose us to even more chlorine and its byproducts than drinking this disinfected water.
While our bodies can filter out much of the chlorine from our drinking water, the THMs and other disinfectant byproducts we inhale during showers and baths may be much more harmful, since the chlorine gas we inhale enters directly into our blood stream. (12)
Research has demonstrated that the cancer risk associated with chlorinated water may actually be due to showering and bathing, rather than drinking the disinfected water. (13, 14) This suggests that many health risks of chlorine may be specifically related to dermal and inhalation exposure. In fact, the chloroform dose from a single, ten minute shower is equal to, and possibly greater than, that from the average two liters of water ingestion on a daily basis. (15, 16)
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Therefore, the filtration of your shower and bath water may be even more important than the water you drink.
Chlorine filtration is fairly simple, provided you use some level of technology to remove it from your shower or bath water. There are resources on the Food Renegade blog about where to find chlorine-filtering shower heads and bath filters. (17) This includes the Rainshow’r Shower Filter and the Crystal Ball Bath Dechlorinator, both sold by the Radiant Life Company.
I’d like to point out that chlorine isn’t in everyone’s water supply, but there is another disinfectant that is also of concern. I checked my local water company’s website, and discovered they use chloramine (chlorine + ammonia) to disinfect the water supply. (17)
Chloramine exposure may be even more damaging to the lung epithelium than chlorine, and may release ammonia as another toxic byproduct as well.
The filters that remove chlorine don’t necessarily remove chloramine.
Chloramine can be removed for drinking water purposes by a carbon block or activated carbon filter that can be installed on a kitchen faucet. Also, both chlorine and chloramine can be removed for bathing purposes by dissolving Vitamin C in the bath water. One 1000 mg Vitamin C tablet will neutralize chloramine in an average bathtub. (18)
There are no shower filters on the market that completely remove chloramine. (19) There are, however, whole house water filters that remove chlorine, chloramine, and other contaminants. Unfortunately, they’re quite expensive and thus may not be an option for many people.
Vitamin C shower filters may be a good choice for those looking for an inexpensive way to reduce the chloramine (and chlorine) content of their showers.
Other simple methods to reduce exposure to chlorine and chloramine include: taking shorter or less frequent showers, avoiding excessively hot showers (since high heat increases the amount of steam), and shutting the water off while soaping up. These techniques will help decrease your exposure if filtration or dechlorination is not an option.
I recommend you check with your local water supply company to determine what disinfecting agents they use to sanitize your tap water. You can then use that information to make a decision about which shower filter is most appropriate for you and your family. Until we know more about how chlorinated water affects our health, and especially our beneficial gut flora, it seems prudent to keep chlorine and chloramine exposure to a minimum.
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I have followed Chris since watching The Thyroid Sessions on May 5, 2014. I respect his insights. Gotta say, however, that many people, including myself, just cannot avoid the products listed on the Radiant Life Company’s website (the Rainshow’r Shower Filter, for example). What then are we to do?
Hi Ronn
Here is a you-tube link which might come in handy , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAh6dRt5u-w
I am a 64 year old female who has had Rheumatoid Arthritis for over 35 years. I recently moved into a new a home with city water after being on well water for 15 years. Two months after living in my home I started having illnesses that I had never experienced. First, a severe throat infection with puss pockets through out my mouth and throat, next I developed a severe bladder infection with spasms. The last thing was diarrhea and nausea for 3 months. All my doctors including a Gastroenterologist found nothing wrong. I finally did research on my own and by process of elimination, I found that the area I live in has the highest level of disinfectants in our drinking water. I called my water company to test my water and of course they found that all my levels were within limits, although, on the higher end of permitted levels. Since I have a compromised immune system, due to my RA. I had a complete house filtration system installed with added carbon filtration and reverse osmosis system. Within 2 days my diarrhea was gone and I felt like a new person. I had more energy, less depression and thirst and a general overall feeling of wellness. I have informed all my doctors, Arthritis Foundation and my water company. I hope this information helps others with RA or low immune system.
Could you please share the water system that you used and water company
I have just stumbled across this very enlightening post, thank you so much for pitting it out there. I am wondering, if cooking with chlorinated water, I.e my steamed broccoli or cauliflower would suffer from chloroform exposure, in the same way as I might be exposed under the shower. That would mean it is not only required to filter my municipal water for drinking, but also all cooking/food rinsing activities. Can the chlorine (compounds) damage the nutritional value of vegetables? And what about brushing my teeth?
regards, Wolfgang
dear wolfgang
Apart from the chlorine and/or chloramine there is all kinds of other nasty chemicals in the water .I have bought a system for the kitchen and for the bathroom. Nowadays RO is much cheaper than it used to be so you could install one on your kitchen faucet but it’s only for cold water, you would need a special type of filter for hot water, most dont perform that well i think the heat might be destructive to the filtermedium.If you dont get your hot water from a centralized system as is often the case in appartments and all the water which comes into your house is cold and gets heated by a boiler, you could install a wholehouse water filtrationsystem where the water comes in and before it goes to your boiler. In that case you’ll be solving both the hot water/cold water problem and the filter for kitchen and bathroom problem.
Yes. Use Jugs of spring water to steam and cook with, also with brushing your teeth. Use 1000 mg (preferably dissolvable fizz) vitamin C and about 1 cup bentonite clay in your bath. Using a luke warm/cold shower with a vitamin c filter and or carbon filter and make as short as possible turning the water off when soaping then quickly rinse until the filter is bought, and I would still make it snappy. Quick showers, enjoy the baths.
What about reverse osmosis water? If I could design a system to provide my bath with RO water (just for taking baths), would this be beneficial to my body? I want to pair a commercial grade RO unit with a 70 gallon storage tank for this purpose. A waste of time?
i’ve read that l-ascorbic acid kills beneficial gut bacteria. for the purpose of putting the vitamin c powder (ascorbic acid) in your bath water for the chloramine issue, would it be a concern if bathing in it? if the ascorbic acid can cause issue to your gut bacteria when taken internally, would it have the same effect when bathing in it, could the ascorbic acid absorb transdermally to such an extent?
also something to keep in mind, l-ascorbic acid is generally made from corn-syrup, so you have to make sure that your ascorbic acid is non-gmo…and apparently, china free too…since most commercial ascorbic acids are made of gmo corn in china.
I agree completely. There are many damaging effects of chlorine in our water that we never care to resolve. When you put it all together, investing in a shower head filter is a small price to pay. After all, chemical exposure to your skin, hair, respiratory system, and home’s environment, and the resulting damage and illness are only five of many reasons why your shower water needs to be as clean as the filtered water you drink. I found more information on the importance of getting a Berkey Shower Filter on their blog here: http://www.berkeyfilters.com/blog/2013/07/31/five-reasons-why-your-showerhead-needs-a-filter/
Will most shower head filters remove water softener salts from the water?
Sodium bisulphite (also known as Campden tablets) will dechlorinate your water by quenching the chlorine demand. This will also dechloraminate by altering the ratio of free chlorine to free ammonia. Chloramination is only ever used as a secondary disinfectant as it is not potent enough to be used effectively as a primary (the required contact times would be enormous).THMs, haloacetic acids and haloacetonitriles will always be present in low levels of chlorinated water. These are less likely to be in chloraminated water, where you can get the other (nastier) disinfection byproducts – the nitrosamines such as NDMA etc. Ozone may also cause disinfection byproducts, the most notable coming to mind being bromate. All of these “chemicals” are a long term exposure risk. Think of it like this: if you put a little too much salt on your food one day, its probably not going to kill you. If you do it every day for your whole life then there’s a chance that it could. The things that the disinfectants are fighting though, they will kill you – think cholera, shigella, ecoli, cryptosporidium and giardia you only need one “serve” of these bugs to get really sick and die. The best way to treat your water at home would be to chemically dechlorinate with SBS, then run it through an activated carbon filter. This will remove most of the organics (thms, haa’s, Han’s ndma etc). If you really want to remove the anions as well (fluoride, chlorate etc) then you should run that carbon filtered water through a reverse osmosis system. Just be sure to understand the settings – too much recovery = why bother filtering, too little = $$$). Or if you are in a wet place, a couple of rain water tanks with a UV + filtration system would also do ( but then to pump or not to put pump….)
I am starting to wonder if my doctor is searching in the wrong area to find the answer to my many many heath issues. Skin problems, prenicious animea, swoolen lymps nodes for about two ajd a half months now. Started in the upper back od neck area, behind my, ears and so forth. Well it satrting to work its way down now. Mental issues as in can’t focus on just one thing. My mind runs in a million different directions all the time. Can’t sleep, very sensitive to any kind of heat, never hungry, vision problems, and the worst is almost the fact when it feels like electricity running through my head. We have a chlorine system on our well water coming into the house, after a hot shower I can’t breath, and it feels like pins and niddles r sticking, and like my skin is on fire. Hoplessly holding out some hope!
Maybe you have hyperthyroidism or Grave’s disease?
Sounds like it could be MOLD. I have been dealing with it for a while now and have all the same things you describe, almost with hair/scalp issues.
tell me more about mold and symptoms dealing with not sleeping and especially hair scalp issues
Yeah, I am not buying it. As a matter of fact, several recent studies show that using chlorinated pools regularly reduces your risk for many diseases. There is just no science to back up claims that chlorine has any negative effects on the body, unless you have blond hair.
Personally, I have an allergy to chlorine diagnosed by the doctor, it definitely has negative effects on my body. My skin itches constantly in the presence of chlorine. Bromine is worse. I can hardly breathe when near a pool disinfected with it.
What has blonde hair got to do with that ?
Well, when I was younger my hair was very blonde but after swimming in a chlorinated pool it would turn green!!!
Very informative article, it was a interesting start to the topic, talking about chloroform. It got my attention quickly! I have been doing research into water filtration and I have come across DE (diatomaceous earth) water filers. The DE filters are supposed to be pretty amazing and do a great job and cleaning water. They are used in municipal size water filtration and are great for removing tons of bacteria from the water. Thanks for you post though it was very interesting and informative and the Vitamin C is something I will be looking into.
I have a question about chlorine exposure. I work as an aquatic Physical therapist and am in the pool anywhere from 5-8 hrs 4 days a week. I recently found out I was pregnant (6weeks), and I am wondering if I should limit my time to only 2-3 hrs a day. Any evidence of birth defects linked to chlorine exposure? Thanks!!
Dear Chris,
I contacted my local water provider and they stated that they do not use chloramines, but purify 98% of our water with sodium hypochlorite. This dissociates to salt, and chlorate?? Do you know anything about filtering water with this situation.
So much gratitude for all your research and logical approach to healthy living.
-Abi
Good dialogue (most of it anyway). True it is that everything that has benefits is also likely to have drawbacks, or unintended negative consequences, particularly when used excessively or without reasonable consideration of the mitigating factors.
My personal research into the issues of chlorine exposure, particularly in the contexts of normal bathing, swimming (recreational water exposures) and even domestic potable waters, has “opened my eyes” to numerous negative effects of chlorine on the human body than I ever took seriously before. Learning there are cost-effective and relatively minor adjustments that can be made to the water that we use and require, is how you start to relieve not only the symptoms and causes of health risks but also the anxiety and paranoia that comes with incomplete understanding.
As we age, we tend to either get wiser or we have events occur that bring into focus the inevitable fact of our mortality and eventual deterioration of our health. Prolonging our individual (and family’s) good health by reducing exposure to environmental toxins (like chlorine) is easier than I previously thought.
Shower and even whole-house filtration systems remove chlorine (and chlorine byproducts) and other risk factors very effectively and at very reasonable cost. Counteracting hardwater problems, without the health and environmental risks of salt-based softeners, is very well established today and even more economical.
Even for recreational waters (swimming pools, hot tubs, therapy spas, etc.) can be better served by combining limited amounts of chlorine (small amounts do have a beneficial effect) with copper-silver ionization treatment methods. This ionization technology was perfected by NASA and the space program over the last 4 decades. And it is recognized around the world as safe, more effective and far more stable than chlorine alone.
This is real, scientific and proven technologies that can mean better health to you and your loved ones and help your pocketbook at the same time.
The benefits and risks of chlorine (and other chemicals) in our water is akin to our culture of over-medication. Where a small dose of many commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals can save a life, too-large doses can either take a life or permanently and negatively alter the quality of that same life.
Learn what you can and take action. If you aren’t willing to take action to protect yourself, then I suggest you remain ignorant and enjoy as much of your life as you can (“Ignorance is Bliss”, someone said).
You are so far off it isn’t funny. Your body is made up of about 30% chlorine. In fact chlorine helps remove alcohols, sugars, and fats that build up in the body. What a laugh.
While I know you have good intentions, you’re confusing the type of chlorine used in drinking water (diatomic and neutral) with chloride (a chlorine ion). They are not exactly the same thing. Chlorine (Cl2) is a diatomic gas that can be liquified under pressure (used to disinfect drinking water to prevent disease-causing microbes from entering the drinking water), while chloride (Cl-) is an ion that is essential for the body.
yeah, Joe is way off here. agree with that much. (NACL, salt, provides essential chloride ions, for example) HOWEVER, yeah, agree, this all seems blown out of proportion. (chlorine, albeit harmful, is not a raging danger as it is presented here) the worst message here is the 65 yr old woman with RA. apparently (and she never explicitly writes this) is drinking the tap water. I never drink from the tap. so its no surprise there. (that harm occurred) my concern is showering with chlorine. but I imagine its fine. (no diseases here) nothing to be paranoid about. and sure, yes, its better to avoid excessive chlorine, of course. all my years in swimming pools have proven that much. (hurts the eyes, to be sure)
@Joe: And YOU received YOUR information from a reliable source? If so, care to share how you’ve come to your calcified conclusions.
Awesome… I think I’ll just not bathe…. (kidding)
Chris,
Is there any way you could do an article on flouride in our water? There’s a lot of info out there, but a lot of it’s not well written or sourced.
…and then if you have a lot of time (as I know you do with a kid and all) maybe one on toothpaste too! Looking for good info on the use (or misuse) of glycerine.
Hi, thanks for the info. Corroborates with my own Internet research. But, I did come across the theory that vitamin C does neutralize chlolamine but with the byproduct of ammonia, which has its own hazards. Something to further research.
Where is the proof that vitamin C and bath balls work?
I did a test from home. Tested the water, it had alot of chlorine. Put some grinded up vitamin c in the water and it went from yellow to white again.
Well put. I cannot help but think that many of the things that we encounter in daily life, such as chlorine, we will down the line find out is bad for us. Especially over long periods. My family uses well water (we filter it anyway), buy locally, and we grow as much of our own food as we have time and energy.
I guarantee you that chlorine in small doses is not bad for you. If you breath pure chlorine gas or are exposed to high concentrations of bleach, that is a different story.
I agree with Joe here. (too much paranoia out there)
Dear Joe ,lots of people think a little poison a day wont kill you… still our bodies have a tipping point ,esp. when we get older, we dont detox our bodies as well as when we where younger. It all adds up inthe environment and in our bodies. I know from physics that chlorine which is part of the halogengroup competes with iodine in the body and wins so in the long run your thyroid will start to function like shit due to this which will render you helpless against all kinds of pathogens coming your way .Chlorine build-up in the body also leads to certain cancers like bladder and intestinal cancers and possibly breast cancer. Dont believe me look it up you’ll find the info .
I totally agree with you . Chemicals are in the water in today’s day ! It’s not 1950 where there was less use of contaminants . There is so much in drinking water it causes reactions in your body thyroid , allergens to metals fluoride and chemical chlorine builds up
I work in oncology and have noticed many swimmers who were very healthy getting cancers such as lymphoma and breast cancers. There seems to be a cluster where I live. This scares me.
Do your friends consume artificial sweeteners?
Chris,
Does the vitamin c apply to drinking water? We have a big berkey with an additional fluoride filter. We have chloramines here in LA and its been in the back of my mind that the berkey can’t take care of chloramines. Would adding vitamin c to our drinking water be warranted?