Is Chlorine You Breathe In the Shower Hurting Your Health?
Imagine how you feel when you take a shower. A long, hot shower is something most of us love doing.
But, due to municipal chlorine, you are likely being exposed to an endocrine-disrupting toxin that accelerates your skin’s aging and causes other harm to your health, especially your hormone system.
I can give you a quick and inexpensive solution, but I need to lay out the problem first:
In this article:
Why are there dangerous chemicals in your shower water?
How does chlorine in your shower water harm your health?
How can you make your shower water safe from the harmful effects of chlorine?
Per FTC guidelines, please assume links on this newsletter may be affiliate links that benefit us, though if so, the price is not marked up. Thank you for supporting our mission.
Why Are There Dangerous Chemicals in Your Shower Water?
To kill parasites and bacteria, most U.S. governments add chemical agents, like chlorine, to the water supply.1
Chlorine began to be used in U.S. water systems in the early 1900s because it killed salmonella bacteria. And almost all governments today continue to use it.
When you hear chlorine, you probably think of your friendly neighborhood pool-pee protector. And, you probably filter your drinking water (and you should) to protect yourself from drinking chlorine and other harmful chemicals.
But, did you realize that your shower water also contains chlorine?
In a hot shower, chlorine gas is released from water and easily breathed in and absorbed through your skin. The longer you shower, the greater the intensity of the gas.
In fact, you absorb far more chlorine in your skin than you could drink in a day!
A 10-minute shower is equivalent to drinking two liters of chlorinated water, according to research published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.2
How Does Chlorine in Your Shower Water Harm Your Health?
Breathing in and absorbing the chlorine in our tap water through regular showering can have serious negative effects on your skin, your hair, and your health.
Lately, in our Insiders Health Coaching group, I’ve been talking about the #1 thing women over 40 constantly ask me: why am I doing so many things right, and can’t lose weight?
It’s a valid question, and the answer is multi-factorial. I believe obesogens, such as the chemicals that remain in our organs and tissues, from exposures in water, products, and food–
–are the MAIN reason why so many women eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and can’t lose 10, 20, or even 40 lbs.
Exposure to low levels of chlorine can cause mild side effects, like skin irritation, nausea, trouble breathing, and coughing. And, over time, higher levels of chlorine can cause increasingly serious side effects, like heart failure or pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs).
High levels can even be fatal to humans, like during World War I, when chlorine was used to manufacture mustard gas.
Chlorine in Shower Water Ages Your Skin
Chlorine can also damage your skin and cause premature signs of aging. When you shower, heat opens your pores and allows the chlorine to seep into your skin.
(So, if you don’t get an inexpensive shower head filter, taking a cooler and shorter shower is an idea to reduce exposure.)
Chlorine strips the skin of its natural oils and causes it to dry and crack, which can lead to wrinkles.3
Chlorine also generates free radicals in the skin, causing oxidative stress and collagen degradation, which may lead to wrinkles, fine lines, and sagging.
Plus, the chlorine in shower water reduces the effectiveness of shampoo, conditioners, lotions, oils, and other skin products – leaving your skin drier and wasting money spent on these skin care products.
Chlorine in Shower Water Harms Your Hair
Chlorine absorbs natural oils that nourish your hair, causing your skin to lose its natural moisture level. It also bonds with proteins in the hair, making hair dry and brittle and causing color in the hair to wash out.
Chlorine May Disrupt Your Hormones
Chlorine is an endocrine-disrupting substance.
Endocrine disruptors are synthetic chemicals that disrupt or damage your body’s hormone-making organs or processes.
Your endocrine system is a complex network of organs and glands that work together to create, distribute, and regulate the hormones your body needs to function properly.
As I said, I think chlorine is one of the main exposures that make people with excess weight struggle to lose it, even when they eat a healthy diet and exercise.
(Luckily, we can detoxify, twice a year, and bring the toxic load way down, which is my main mission in life, helping people do this. Consider joining us now. Or in January, when we always have 1,000 new detoxers join us.)
One study showed that boys who spent a significant amount of time in the pool before puberty were three times as likely to land in the bottom 10th percentile for testosterone levels.4
Breathing in Chlorine May Harm Your Respiratory Health
When you shower in hot, chlorinated water, chlorine is not only absorbed through your skin, but it also vaporizes, so you’re inhaling it, which can harm your lungs.5
When you breathe in the chlorine fumes, the vapors are inhaled directly into your bloodstream, which is even worse than drinking chlorinated water.
Chlorine May Contribute to Cancer
When chlorine is used as a water treatment, it combines with organic matter to form trihalomethanes (THMs).
THMs are toxic when consumed, inhaled, or absorbed by the skin. One of the most common THMs is chloroform, a known carcinogen.6
In three Canadian cities, 36 cancers were attributed just to THM exposure through inhalation and skin exposure during showers.7
Additionally, a European study found that lifetime exposure to THMs from showers increased the risk of bladder cancer.8
One more data point: a Health Canada position paper said that 14-16% of bladder cancers may be attributed to chlorine by-products (CBPs) – which may be “the most important environmental carcinogens in terms of the number of attributable cancers per year.”9
The paper also links CBPs to abortions, low sperm count, birth defects, and respiratory problems.
Chlorine in Shower Water May Harm Your Gut
Chlorine is intended to destroy bacteria. So, it makes sense that it might disrupt the beneficial bacteria in our guts.
Of course, gut health is critical to our overall health. So, if you want to be healthy, you want to make sure you’re protecting your gut health.
You can do this by decreasing your exposures to chlorine, and by eating a high-fiber diet and taking PreZyme Pro, with 9M living organisms per dose, of 15 different strains.
Chlorine in Shower Water May Impact Your Brain
In 1992, industrial chemist J.O. Bercz showed that chlorinated water alters and destroys essential fatty acids – the building blocks of your brain and central nervous system.9
[Related: What’s the Best Way to Get Your Essential Fatty Acids? Fish Oil? Nooo!]
When chlorine mixes with water, free radicals are created, which oxidize EFAs, turning them rancid.
So, if you’re getting your brain-healthy essential omega-3s, like from our organic, sprouted seeds, but your shower water has chlorine, you might not be getting the full beneficial effects.
The health harms of chlorine in your shower water may even go beyond your bathroom!
Some research shows that chlorine vapors spread into the rest of your home, further increasing exposure.
How Can You Make Your Shower Water Safe from the Harmful Effects of Chlorine?
Many European countries use ozone to clean the water, rather than chlorine. It’s a safer option.
But, in America, we use chlorine. 😕
If you want to protect your health and reduce your toxic exposure to chlorine in your shower, the easiest and best thing you can do is to get a high-quality shower filter that works.
Luckily, they are not expensive. If you already have a whole-home filtration system that removes chlorine, you’re covered. But if not:
I recommend the Shower Filter from Berkey Filters. It helps protect your hair and your skin – and reduces your toxic exposure – in a very affordable way!
The Shower Filter from Berkey Filters converts free chlorine into a harmless chloride, which is too large to evaporate or absorb through the skin.
After adding a filter to their shower, many people notice the difference in the skin and hair right away.
Plus, you’ll be taking an important step to protect your health and feel your best.
I did some research to investigate options, and Berkey’s is the most effective one for the best price I found.
Frankly, I haven’t had a shower filter for several years, and I did this research again, myself, because I don’t love my “Florida hair,” which resembles the descriptions above, as to the effects of chlorine on hair.
At first, I blamed it on the humidity and change in climate from Utah to Florida, but…I think it’s more than that.
I’m ordering a showerhead filter for my house right now, too!
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References
Rice, E. W., Clark, R. M., & Johnson, C. H. (1999). Chlorine inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Emerging infectious diseases, 5(3), 461–463. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid0503.990322
Weisel, C. P., & Jo, W. K. (1996). Ingestion, inhalation, and dermal exposures to chloroform and trichloroethene from tap water. Environmental health perspectives, 104(1), 48–51. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9610448
https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/emergency/chemical_terrorism/docs/chlorine_general.pdf
Nickmilder, M., & Bernard, A. (2011). Associations between testicular hormones at adolescence and attendance at chlorinated swimming pools during childhood. International journal of andrology, 34(5 Pt 2), e446–e458. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2605.2011.01174.x
Di Napoli, A., Agabiti, N., Ancona, C., Forastiere, F., Lo Presti, E., Corbo, G. M., D'Orsi, F., & Perucci, C. A. (2002). Respiratory effects of exposure to chlorine vapors during a swimming pool accident in a recreational center in Rome. Epidemiologia e prevenzione, 26(5), 240–247.
Zierler, S., Feingold, L., Danley, R. A., & Craun, G. (1988). Bladder cancer in Massachusetts related to chlorinated and chloraminated drinking water: a case-control study. Archives of environmental health, 43(2), 195–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/00039896.1988.9935853
Chowdhury, S., & Champagne, P. (2009). Risk from exposure to trihalomethanes during shower: probabilistic assessment and control. The Science of the total environment, 407(5), 1570–1578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.11.025
Villanueva CM, Cantor KP, Grimalt JO, et al. Assessment of lifetime exposure to trihalomethanes through different routes. Occup Environ Med. 2006;63(4):273-277. doi:10.1136/oem.2005.023069
Wigle D. T. (1998). Safe drinking water: a public health challenge. Chronic diseases in Canada, 19(3), 103–107.