We go to great lengths to remove chlorine (and other contaminants) in our drinking water and shower water, and it made me think about the effect of this common chemical in swimming pools and how much that exposure can affect us.
The Problem With Chlorine
You don’t even have to swim in the pool to be affected by some of the health risks. Chlorinated pools and other water sources also release chloramines.
Chloramine is a gas that smells like chlorine and you’ve probably smelled this in hotels with indoor pools.
Sweat, sunscreens, urine, and other chemicals and waste combine with chlorine to create chloramines. This oxidized chlorine gas and is present in the air around chlorinated pools and other water sources. As you can imagine, this is especially a concern in indoor pools without ventilation but can also be problematic in outdoor pools.
Negative Effects of Chloramines
A strong smell of chlorine is a pretty good indication that there are chloramines in a pool. This potent gas can also cause symptoms like coughing and sinus irritation. On the more serious end, it can cause symptoms like wheezing and even increasing asthma symptoms.
The CDC reports that:
Breathing of irritants may increase sensitivity to other types of irritants such as fungi and bacteria.
Even the American Academy of Pediatrics acknowledges the dangers of Chlorine. Their study of over 800 children revealed that chlorine exposure had a noticeable effect on children with allergies or asthma. They also found that even children without allergies or asthma were affected by prolonged or regular chlorine exposure.
What to Do?
Our whole family loves the water, so while not swimming and filtering our home water would eliminate chlorine exposure, I’m not quite ready to throw the baby out with the pool water!
Thankfully, there are a few things that can be done to help minimize chlorine exposure:
- Avoid chlorinated pools whenever possible. In many places there are options that use salt filters (though these still contain chlorine but in smaller amounts) or UV filters. There are often great places to swim outdoors in some places. Obviously, not swimming in water sources that use chlorine is an easy way to reduce exposure. Thankfully, our local indoor pool uses salt and UV filters and no chlorine.
- Use Vitamin C: Check out this great article and the attached lectures for a great background on how vitamin C helps neutralize chlorine and undo the damage of chlorine exposure. Turns out taking vitamin C (ascorbic acid) internally and making some type of solution to rub on the skin can reduce a lot of exposure. Turns out they even make vitamin C shower filters that are pretty inexpensive and which dechlorinate shower water. Since vitamin C is often used in anti-aging serums, this is a win-win solution!
- Protect the skin: Providing a physical barrier on the skin with an oil can also help reduce exposure. I like using my homemade lotion and adding vitamin C. It is great for skin and protects from chlorine exposure (recipe below!). A commenter pointed out that many public pools do not allow lotions on the skin before using the pool so check with the rules if you use a public pool and check with your pool instructions if using your own pool.
Do You Have a Pool?
If you have a pool and swim regularly, the effects of chlorine exposure can be even more pronounced. Thankfully, if you own a pool, you also have the ability to control the methods used and limit your chlorine exposure.
There are many great chlorine-free filtration options available now. If you are building a pool, you can start with one of these for about the same price as a regular chlorine pump and system. If you already have a pool, you can convert it relatively easily to a chlorine-free system.
Chlorine-Free Systems
Many places now offer UV based systems that require minimal or no chlorine to operate. These systems kill over 99% of bacteria on their own, so trace amounts of other chemicals can be used. Our method is to use a UV filter and pump system and use food grade hydrogen peroxide as a safety net.
The goal with hydrogen peroxide is to keep it at about 50 ppm. We use simple test strips to test and add about 2 cups of hydrogen peroxide per 1000 gallons of water every couple of weeks.
The important note here is to use food grade 35% hydrogen peroxide. The stuff from the drugstore is only 3% and you’d need a whole to shock a pool. 35% hydrogen peroxide is super concentrated, so use caution when handling it, but it is completely safe once in the pool because it is diluted so much.
Not only is this the most natural method I’ve found, it has been really simple to use and the only other factor we have to look at is balancing the pH. It is also pretty comparable cost-wise to other methods.
If you swim in a pool that isn’t your own or can’t convert to a chlorine-free system, something as simple as a de-chlorinating lotion can help. It can also be helpful to shower in a shower with a vitamin C filter before and after swimming.
How to Make a DIY Dechlorinating Lotion
When we are going to swim, we apply a quick lotion barrier to the skin. (Skip to the end of this post to find a simple sunscreen recipe that will do double duty.)
- 1/2 cup almond or olive oil
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup beeswax
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- 2 teaspoons vitamin C powder
- Optional: 2 tablespoons shea butter or cocoa butter
- Optional: Essential Oils, vanilla extract, or other natural extracts to suit your preference
How to Make Lotion
- Combine oils and beeswax in a pint sized or larger glass jar. I have a mason jar that I keep just for making lotions and lotion bars, or you can even reuse a glass jar from pickles, olives or other foods.
- In another small jar or bowl, add the vitamin c powder to the warm water and stir until dissolved.
- Fill a medium saucepan with a couple inches of water and place the jar with the oils inside the saucepan and turn on medium heat.
- As the water heats, the ingredients in the jar will start to melt. Shake or stir occasionally to incorporate. When all ingredients are completely melted, pour into a small blender or food processor. (Keep in the jar if using an immersion blender that will fit in the top of the jar.)
- With blender or food processor on, slowly add the water/vitamin C mixture until blended and emulsified.
- Store in an air-tight glass jar.
- Use before swimming (preferably after rinsing skin) to minimize chlorine exposure. This is purposefully a small batch since no preservatives are used and it will only last one swim season.
- Enjoy and be chlorine free!
Other Options (No DIY required)
Those who use sunscreen can add vitamin C powder to pre-made sunscreen to get the benefits of chlorine reduction and sun protection at the same time.
This article was medically reviewed by Dr. Shani Muhammad, MD, board certified in family medicine and has been practicing for over ten years. As always, this is not personal medical advice and we recommend that you talk with your doctor or work with a doctor at SteadyMD.
Do you worry about chlorine exposure? How do you avoid it?
Thanks for the great article! Is there a way to preserve your lotion recipe?
Vitamin C is very sensitive to heat and oxidation and is readily denatured especially when exposed to water. I wonder if instead of straight vitamin C we might not use the fat-soluble form of Vitamin C which is Ascorbyl Palmitate. This is a food industry preservative whose components are, C which is ascorbic acid and palmitic acid. Our bodies convert excess carbs into palmitic acid.
In the above formula, 2 tsp of vitamin C may be 10 grams of straight ascorbic acid. Whereas, 1 gram of Ascorbyl Palmitate would contain 400 mg. of Ascorbic Acid. An equivalent amount of Vitamin C in the lotion would mean adding 25 grams of Ascorbyl Palmitate. @ $18 per 8oz bottle, it’s affordable and interesting. I will see how the lotion looks as I slowly add the Ascorbyl Palmitate.
The review on that shower filter was terrible. Everyone said it leaked. I wonder if there is a homemade option or how one would go about making one…
My family uses the following shower head and we think it does a great job…
showerfilterstore.com/shop/omica-shower-filter-removes-fluoride-chlorine-chloramine-lead-vocs/
I feel like chlorine is a moot point with all the fluoride in our pool water. Fluoride has a lower relative atomic weight (or mass) than chlorine, so it will displace chlorine (and bromine and iodine). Therefore that is my real concern and I don’t think there is much I can do about fluoride in my water. I wish I only had to worry about chlorine!
hi
LAURA THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT FLUORIDE, I DISTILL MY DRINKING WATER WHICH TAKES ALL NASTY ADDITIVES OUT LEAVING IT PURE WATER,IF ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE MINERALS, YOU CAN ALWAYS ADD THE MINERALS BACK BY ADDING ORGANIC SEA SALT. I WASH SHOWER WITH RAIN WATER, IF YOU HAVE A GOOD DIET YOU WOULDN’T NEED TO ADD YOUR MINERALS BACK TO THE DISTILLED WATER,AS YOU WOULD GET THEM VIA YOUR DIET! HOPE THIS HELPS.
LOOK UP THE FLUORIDE FREE WEBSITE IN YOUR STATE! FOR MORE INFORMATION!
There are filters that remove fluoride from drinking water. The Big Berkey is one. The AlexaPro Pure is another – it is a brand new gravity filtering system. Both of these are portable so you can take them with you when you move. I’ve also read about a new technology that is currently in production and coming out soon. It is a stand-alone counter top reverse osmosis and filtering system that does not require being connected to your plumbing or electricity to work. So it too can be portable.
All three of these water filtration systems have had 3rd party testing done that proves they remove all the contaminants they claim to remove, including fluoride, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, bacteria, pesticides, herbicides, chlorine, chloramines, etc.
Sadly, it’s much more expensive to run a whole-house filtration system to remove all these harmful chemicals so we don’t have to bathe in them. But filtering drinking/cooking water has to be better than doing nothing at all!
Lori, you can use a shower filter (I like the Sprite brand, available on Amazon) if you don’t have a whole-house filter.
Thanks Tara for the suggestion. To my knowledge there isn’t a shower filter that removes fluoride and chloramines. If someone knows of one, I’d sure like to hear about it! I’m pretty sure the Sprite brand doesn’t. It only claims to remove chlorine on their website, which wouldn’t do me any good.
Our water no longer has chlorine added to it. They switched to adding Chloramines instead a few years ago. I’ve looked into it. Most basic filters don’t remove or even reduce chloramines at all. But adding 1000 mg of vitamin C to the bath water and letting it sit for a short while binds up the chloramines making it less harmful. It doesn’t have any effect on the fluoride though. So short of heating my filtered water for the bathtub, which would take a great deal of time, I don’t have any other choice but to bathe in fluoride. Yuck!
Hi Lori, I didn’t realize you are dealing with chloramines rather than chlorine in your water supply. Our water here has chlorine added, rather than chloramine. So I use a shower filter, though as you said, that kind of filter doesn’t help with fluoride. I do have a whole-house filter, which removes chlorine/chloramines, fluoride, etc, and then use the shower filter as an extra layer of protection. Have you checked your local water report to see if the fluoride is from natural erosion or if it is added to the water? I use and recommend the Pure Effects filters — both the whole-house filter and the countertop and under-counter filters.
They remove fluoride very effectively (fluoride is particularly hard to remove, from what I understand, and the effectiveness levels tend to wane over the life of most filters, but the PE filters have very good fluoride removal capacity). I also like that the water is always available, rather than having to fill the Berkey over and over (I used to do that and am very happy not to have to any longer). The filters also remove radiation, pharmaceutical residues, VOCs, heavy metals, and many other offenders, in addition to the chlorine/chloramine and fluoride. If you are at some point able to purchase the whole-house filter from Pure Effects, that would take care of all the contaminants that are of primary concern for you (chloramines, fluoride), as well as all the other categories of contaminants (which I’m sure you would prefer to be rid of as well), and then you could add a shower filter just for removing anything picked up from the pipes in your home. I wish you well. I know it’s challenging to figure all these things out. I hope this info is helpful.
fluoride is rat poison!
when you jump into a pool full of chlorine.(base ingredient of bleach!)
your liver and kidneys start to clean/filter the poison er sorry chlorine out of the water.
so instead of the water cleaning you. You are cleaning the water!! with your liver and kidneys.
get a bottle of domestos and read the label. quote..it may release DANGEROUS gasses (chlorine)
Coumadin is rat poison as it thins blood, but Cl/F/Br are all in the same chemical family and block iodine which is needed for the thyroid. Yes…I have 2nd thoughts about swimming compared to a walk in the sunlight.
This is perfect timing as we are moving into a house with a chlorine pool. It does have the option to switch back to salt water, which I really want to do. Is there still some chlorine present in salt pools? Is there anything to watch out for with salt pools and does it need to also have a UV filter? Thanks!!
Also isn’t salt water just the same as chlorine since by the time the salt gets to the pool it is chlorine? I’ve heard salt water is the same as chlorine just a cheaper option. I think we’ll wait till we can get a UV filter with it as this would reduce the overall need for salt/chlorine.
Actually there is a huge difference between salt being changed to “chlorine” and commercial chlorine used in pools. The commercial chlorine has several other chemical added to stabilize the concentrated chlorine because it is dangerous by itself, for shipping and handling. Salt on the other hand is stable and harmless and the concentration can be easily adjusted to lower levels in a pool.
salt pools..sodium chloride..na cl….add an electron to the water and there you have it…you have made sodium hypochlorite…bleach….thats all there is to a salt pool…you have made bleach…the chlorine gas is used to kill bacteria…and revert back to salt…and the process begins again…so yes there is chlorine in a salt pool
I read somewhere that chlorine was Hitler’s poison gas!
and a busload of school children was carted off to the hospital after
the council put too much in the “new” swimming pool in winsford Cheshire.
I have spent long hours on the phone trying to find a SAFE place to swim but to date have
drawn a blank?
went to the beach at new Brighton but the stench of raw sewerage soon changed my mind.
please let me know if anyone finds a safe place to swim.
Hi, My spa has Cl made on demand so it is less strong and taking a shower before swimming…get hair/body wet may prevent the stronger Cl from being absorbed. Iodine may help push Cl/F/Br out of the body. Yes…it is hard to swim in lake full of living microorganisms and sewage is not good. They used to swim at a quarry, but people urinated in the water and polluted it. Too bad. Fluorine in tap water also is not good…Nazi’s used F to make people more passive as it blocks thyroid like Cl/Br.
Nope! The gas used by Hitler was Zyklon B (in the form of small lumps of diatomite soaked in prussic acid), and contrary to the “official” holocaust story, the only thing gassed was clothing and bedding to kill the typhus virus that was rampant in the camps. It is the reason that the bodies were so emaciated.
yes this is true. We have a salt water system and would never go back to straight chlorine. The salt water system is programmed to begin chlorinating at night when everyone is out of the pool. It generates chlorine for 4 hours, at which time you can smell a faint chlorine aroma. By morning though, the smell has dissipated and the water disinfected. When we used chlorine tabs, the chlorine smell was very apparent all the time, bathing suits wore out quickly, and eyes were bloodshot from the water. With the salt water system, our pool water stays clean and swimmers are much more comfortable. Swimming in the salt water is akin to a pleasant relaxing epsom salts bath, and keeping eyes open underwater is not painful in the least. The concentration of salt in the pool is similar to the natural saline content of human tears.
The cost savings is also a huge plus. Including the initial investment of the system and adding two to three bags of water softener salt each year, we cut the cost of disinfecting the pool, Pool chlorine tabs are quite expensive and we are saving money in the long run by not using them, not to mention the savings in not needing to replace bathing suits until out grown.
There is much more sodium in the ocean than in a salt water pool. I feel, for my family that the salt water system is a huge improvement over a chlorinated pool. I am confident that I am doing what is best for my family
I’m no biochemist, so I don’t know anything about how sodium hypochlorite or “bleach” is formed in pool water but I have read that bleach is bioaccumulative in the body and we should avoid it because it is possible that it will bioaccumulate into dangerously toxic levels.
Also, perhaps the largest danger from swimming in pool chemicals is in how it affects our gut microbiome. Anything that kills bacteria in a pool is also going to kill the beneficial bacteria in our digestive system because it is absorbed directly through our pores.
Long-term swimmers frequently suffer from leaky gut syndrome and the swimming pool chemicals are at the root of the problem. Leaky gut syndrome can lead to things like IBS, skin problems such as eczema and psoriasis, and eventually many other autoimmune disorders. Daily probiotics supplements is absolutely necessary for anyone having long-term exposure to pool chemicals, and maybe even the exposure we get just from daily showering.
Another harm is caused by the chlorine and fluoride from water getting into the iodine receptors that are located on almost every cell in our body. It displaces the iodine that we need for proper thyroid function.
This is quite depressing for me to read. After 7 years of swimming competitively, I worked 30+ hrs a week in an indoor, chlorinated, swimming pool for 5 years. I spent about 2/3 of my time teaching lessons in the water (usually 4-5 hrs at a time) and the other 1/3 life guarding and breathing the very poorly ventilated air. I spent another 2 hrs as an aquatic director, so not as closely exposed but still–everyday–even my office smelled like chlorine! Hopefully I won’t see any severe adverse effects but I guess it’s too late for prevention at this point! Yikes!
It’s never too late to reverse the affects of any contamination. I’d suggest following a cancer diet for 3 months to detox, sleep by 10, take a walk in the sun every day, and you should be good to go!
Well, if it helps..I not only grew up with a swimming pool since I was four, I also swam in college, became a lifeguard and swimming instructor for seven years, and also swam in indoor pools regularly in my thirties(even when pregnant!)…..and I am now 61. I haven’t swam for a long time due to severe injury and I am starting again today. It is very difficult to locate a non chlorine pool, and although I don’t like chlorine, swimming is an incomparable exercise and I believe the good outweighs the bad, given the info in these comments..we can protect our skin with better solutions now.
Hey Deborah,
I am 61 too! Same story for me although I have only been teaching for the last 8.5 years. I am trying to figure a natural healer for my skin; my skin isn’t so pretty, but I love the exercise of doing my water workout, 2000 yards usually…
Let me know how you’re doing with you new water exercise!
Lucy
My mom was a competitive swimmer for 30 years, she swam until 6 months pregnant with me. And put me in a pool since 6 months of age…She is now 63 and on thyroid medication, I always wondered if the constant chlorine exposure had anything to do with her thyroid problems. I got her a Berkey filter to try to help reduce her chlorine and fluoride exposure.
Any tips for hair that is damaged by chlorinated pools? I recently was in a heavily chlorinated pool for diving lessons all day and came out with hair like straw. Usually coconut oil seems to do the trick but not this time!
try jojoba oil
I’m a swim instructor, and I use jojoba oil in my hair after washing.
Take a shower before entering the pool so skin/hair are already saturated with water so the stronger Cl water can’t soak in as much.
I swim a lot and have struggled with straw like hair. I use non-toxic shampoo and conditioner all the time anyway but after a swim, I coat my hair with organic coconut oil and let it sit for 10-20 minutes. Then I wash with my usual shampoo with some baking soda added in my palm. Usual conditioner and I’m all set with clean soft hair again 🙂 The baking soda helps remove the elements that are deposited on the hair shaft during swimming. This has worked for me even if a wait a few days to do this detailed regimen.
I read somewhere that if you soak your hair with club soda before swimming it… okay I can’t remember what, exactly, but it’s supposed to let less chlorine penetrate the shaft of your hair. Baking soda will do some mechanical damage over time – you might try club soda before hand to see if it helps.
HI, Interesting! Try it and let us know if it helps. Happiness….
Most public pools will not let you in if they know you’ve spread oil and wax on your skin. It clogs up their filters. That’s why they ask you to shower before entering the pool. Just hydrate your skin and hair in the shower before entering the pool then shower again after and you should be fine.
Totally agree, and as an ex-lifeguard cleaning the scum off the pool this is definely not a good idea in my books.
My private and expensive gym never cleaned the grease off the pool walls, right where I touch to turn. Never cleaned the tiles in the 15 years I went there. But those were very lazy lifeguards. I worked as a guard for a summer and did plenty of pool cleaning myself. Cleaning the tiles at the water line was literally a 30 min job.
You should be fine? I don’t think that’s good enough. If your liver and kidneys are filtering this water I don’t think any amount of showering is going to help
Oh, this has me worried to anxiety. I do everything possible to keep my kids healthy which includes weekly swim lessons. Sigh.
Unfortunately I don’t have salted pools around me and due to my bad knees,i get a good workout in the pool in the gym 🙁 my question is,i heard that you’re not suppose to use oils I’m the pool cause it combines with the chlorine? Is that true? If it’s how can you use this lotion before swimming? I also heard you should shower in cold water before getting in the pool to hydrate your skin and it absorb less of the chlorinated water and drink plenty of water, which is hard to do right before cause than you end up leaving the pool alot to go to the bathroom 🙂
when you jump into a pool full of chlorine.(base ingredient of bleach!)
your liver and kidneys start to clean/filter the poison er sorry chlorine out of the water.
so instead of the water cleaning you. You are cleaning the water!! with your liver and kidneys.
get a bottle of domestos and read the label. quote..it may release DANGEROUS gasses (chlorine)
Just the other day I couldn’t bear to get in a chlorinated pool because of the smell, now I KNOW that it’s bad for me! I have a question though, I thought most ascorbic acid/vitamin c supplements are genetically modified. Do you know that this brand isn’t? Or aren’t you worried about it?
I wondered this also, I have it in my cabinet. Did some searching and found out NOW does use gmo corn for vitamin c. The O is suppose to stand for organic, guess ill be tossing this out.
We have been using Native American Nutritionals Vitamin C and I’m pretty sure it’s non-GMO.
Might give them a try 🙂
The best type of vitamin C that you can get is made be Pure Encapsulations and it’s called Ester C.