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?
As Ryan said, a salt water pool is a chlorine pool. It manufactures the chlorine in your pool system so you don’t need to buy or handle chlorine.
This appears to be a good alternative freshwater system with good reviews and it is available in the US. enviroswim.com
I had a salt water pool at my home in Melbourne, Australia until 2015. The salt in the water is broken down by the electrolysis unit to create chlorine. I was unimpressed by the cost of running it, and the quantity and cost of the other chemicals that the pool maintainer insisted were necessary to keep the pool healthy. I considered the ozone and hydrogen peroxide systems but dismissed them because of the dangerous nature of the chemicals that must be stored on site to be fed into the pool. I was most impressed when I discovered that the Enviroswim system was developed at the request of the Queensland state government after several children died in public pools because the existing chlorine based systems did not kill some of the most dangerous bacteria found in public pools. When my salt chlorinator unit became unreliable due to an electronic fault, I replaced it with an Enviroswim system. Enviroswim uses an ultrasonic chamber to destroy large organisms in the water, and a pair of copper and silver electrodes to kill bacteria. The water is now almost completely free of salt. It has cut down my maintenance and power costs and virtually eliminated the need for chemical additives apart from a small amount of acid to balance the alkilinity from the concrete structure of the pool. The air around the pool smells better and the metal fittings do not corrode as quickly as they did previously. But, the major change was that I had to dismiss the previous pool maintenance company because they kept on adding chemicals that were unnecessary and interfered with the Enviroswim system. I have since realised that there are many ways of creating safe swimming water, but the pool equipment and chemical industry promotes the ones that ensure a perpetual flow of chemicals into my pool water and cash into their pockets.
This is a general question. I just made your sunscreen and bug-off lotion bars and am very happy with them so far, so I will continue to use them. My question is do you have a quick and dirty way to clean the bowls, pots, utensils, etc.? I found the cleanup was messy and took a while, and I’m just wondering if I did it the hard way. Love your blog BTW!
Use liquid Castile soap straight from the bottle. I used to loathe the cleanup job until I discovered this. It makes cleaning the oils and waxes off quick and easy. I keep an unscented bottle of castile soap around specifically for cleanup.
Could you please share a substitute for the Vitamin C and Coconut Oil? My son has sensitivities to both. Thanks so much!
Katie,
I see you link to NOW ascorbic acid here and Camu pwdr in your Vit C face serum. I would like to order just one for both, which do you recommend. Obviously there is a large price difference but if the Camu is worth the money, I would buy it.
Thanks,
Naomi
Ascorbic acid will work for this and the serum
Your website is awesomely incredibly informative, thoroughly. Socially powerfully useful. We need seriously that sort of professionalism, objective thinking. Thank you. It makes you hero, socially. That’s what responsible economics, business itself is about
By the way, a question about the lotion to protect against pool chlorine:
Since it is commonly recommended to get your skin thoroughly wet before going into the pool, do you apply this lotion of yours before thoroughly wetting your skin?
Hi Kathie,
Thanks for this recipe.i’ve tried this. I have few questions, it is like body butter consistency after you put the vit c mixture. Is there anyway to dissolve the vit c without water because i’ve tried to dissolve it with oil but it dies not dilute. I would like to make it as lotion bar. And can you please suggest me how to combine this recipe with zinc oxide so that i can have de-chlorine bar and uv protection as well?
I second this request. A lotion bar style decolorinator WITH added zinc oxide as UV protection would be brilliant. Especially on the kids who will generally only tolerate one lotion application, particularly while waiting to jump in the water!!
The thing is, don’t be fooled by the salt systems, they are simply a chlorine generator. They use electrodes to break the bond between sodium and chlorine. So, chlorine is still present and it actually is, in some cases, at a higher level than in a normally chlorinated pool. The REAL solution is to use a couple systems together like the UV system, an OZONE system and something to give the water residual fighting power like a copper ionizer. I’m using OZONE Joes, a UV system and a Go Chemless on my pool and I am chlorine-free! 🙂
Great article, I agree, chlorine has GOT TO GO!
Thank you for the advice. I am an active athletic 51 year old former competitive track athlete, Power Lifter and Jiu-Jitsu wrestler. I now have a hip implant (a BHR resurfacing) and I am having terrible problems with it since I bought my new house with its own pool. I am beginning to suspect it is due to the chlorine in my new pool dehydrating my body. My hip implant relies on a natural fluid barrier for the metal “ball” to “glide” in the metal socket, without this fluid barrier, my hip grinds during movement. I began to notice a correlation between my hip worsening and my time in or exposure to my chlorinated pool. I then read a doctors article stating that dehydration is the most likely cause of my implant grinding. I tried staying out of the pool for a few days and my hip returned to normal. It would be a major bummer if I could not use the new pool. I love swimming in it. Hopefully these alternative systems you mentioned will not dry out my body like the Chlorine. Thank you again for the advice.
As my middle daughter’s swimming lessons are about to start back up (in a chlorinated pool I’m afraid), this post was well timed for me. Thanks for the lotion recipe, I will be making some up. And, thanks for the tip of making it right in a jar – I’ve never done that before. Awesome!
I have felt frustrated with this very subject lately and
wondered what I could do to protect my two year old daughter. My family thinks
I’m crazy already, but I swear this dermatitis covering her wasn’t there until
she took swimming lessons and swam in my in laws pool. Keep thinking since the
skin is such a detoxifying organ and she is so clean that this is the reason
for the reaction. I’ve been covering her in coconut oil which seems to really
be helping, but all ears for anything else I can do.
if coconut oil isn’t doing the trick as rapidly as you’d like, i found jojoba oil to be extremely effective in treating my dishidrotic eczema and seabuckthorn oil helps to combat redness.
Thank you!!!!
I use almond oil on my skin after swimming, works amazingly! Though for extra sensitive dry spots (I have a pretty bad reaction to chlorine, but have no other options for swimming where I live) I have to use cetaphil on those areas. Only thing that works for me. :/
Don’t tell our gym, but for those very small patches I cover them with a thin film of straight lanolin before swimming for a good layer of protection, it’s amazing! Those spots are also covered by my swimsuit, so I assume very, very little would make it into the pool. Unlike a lotion would, because it’s soooo thick and doesn’t wash off easily.
Also, to get the chlorine smell off, I use vitamin c powder mixed in water and spray on my and my husband’s body immediately after swimming, and then shower. I use it in my hair as well, works like a charm!
I use about 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon vitamin c to 1 spray bottle of water.
Have you tried an iodine supplement or kelp (kombu)? Iodine is a helpful halogen that will displace the other ones in the body: fluorine, chlorine, bromine.
Dr. Jorge Flechas recommend about 12000 mcg daily. This is just under the 13000 mcg/day that Japanese usually consume on a daily basis. Might need to be on the watch for a detox reaction, but these levels are very safe.
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/05/04/iodine-deficiency-affect-childs-brain-function.aspx
I’ve read in many different sources that iodine is a weaker halide than any of the harmful halides like: chlorine, fluoride or bromide. So the harmful ones will get into the iodine cell receptors and block iodine from getting in.
Iodine is heavier than Cl/Br/F and in the same chemicals family. Iodine can push the others out.
This chart explains: https://sciencenotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/PeriodicTableMeltingPoint.png
Your observation about iodine being the heavier halide on the Periodic table and therefore the stronger halide sounds logical but…
Actually, it’s the other way around. Iodine is displaced by lighter halogens, and they displace one another. For example, bromine displaces iodine, but chlorine displaces bromine, and fluoride displaces all of the above! For more information on various forms of iodine and more about halogen displacement, check out http://www.squidoo.com/IodineHealth
Bromine — The Bully of the Halide Group
When you ingest or absorb bromine, it displaces iodine, and this iodine deficiency leads to an increased risk for cancer of the breasti, thyroid gland, ovary, and prostate — cancers that we see at alarmingly high rates today. This phenomenon is significant enough to have been given its own name – the Bromide Dominance Theory.ii
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/05/another-poison-hiding-in-your-environment.aspx
There is so much conflicting info out there. It’s so hard for a regular person to sift through it all and figure out what is accurate and what is not. When even the top experts have differing opinions, then it makes a difficult situation impossible! I guess you just have to pick which expert you are going to believe and try to avoid as many toxins as possible because unlike our grandparents, we are bombarded every day and our bodies weren’t designed to deal with this many toxins at once. When the body is overloaded and constantly trying to get rid of toxins, it can’t do what it’s supposed to do, like make necessary hormones, repair damage, etc.
https://www.nourishingplot.com/2014/08/30/detoxing-fluoride-bromine-and-chlorine-naturally/
Dr. Brownstein talks about iodine pushing out the Cl/F/Br. I take IV chelations. They remove the lighter minerals first before they can get to the heavier metals.
Thanks for your information.
In response to Ghada629 – yes, oil will combine with chlorine in the pool, reduce the active chlorine in the water, increase the amount of disinfection byproducts in the water and in the air. The pool operator will need to counter this input of extra bather pollution by further increasing the volume of chlorine being added to the pool.
The best way of reducing smells in chlorinated pools… is to wash thoroughly before getting in. Operators can only reduce chlorine concentrations as part of a combined effort with the general public. Cleaner swimmers equate to lower pool disinfectant requirements… Eg. less chlorine.
If all the swimmers at a pool coat themselves with oil prior to bathing, the pool water quality will deteriorate rapidly. It wont be a very pleasant place to swim at all.
We have some pools sterilized with ozone here in BC, Canada, which apparently does not eliminate but reduces the amount of chlorine used. I am sure your UV and salt water pools are the thing of the future. How great!
I used to use ascorbic acid in the bath, then became concerned when I heard GMOs. By googling I came across a few brands that is non corn dervied and guarantee no GMOs. Have not tried any yet but they are out there if the NOW brand makes people uneasy. This is what NOW says on their site….
For example, pure natural vitamin C is produced from corn by only five production facilities in the world. None are in the United States, where GMO corn is all too common. All are from Europe and the Far East, situated in countries that (to date) have restrictions that do not allow GMO food corn to be grown there. Our producers have given us statements to confirm that their corn sources are non-GMO, but the documentation doesn’t extend back to the farm level. Testing for GMOs has not found that any is detectable in vitamin C. We have done all that is currently possible to assure that our vitamin C is non-GMO, and continue to monitor the situation to ensure this is maintained in the future.