Over the last decade, I’ve talked a lot about the ingredients we put in our bodies and slather on our bodies. That includes food, water and our natural beauty care. Today I want to talk about water, but not the water we drink. We often get so caught up in the kind of water we’re drinking and whether we’re hydrated enough that we completely forget about the water we are bathing in every single day. Instead, it’s time to explore the reality of how our shower may be harming our health.
Something we don’t often consider is that a long, hot shower might be dangerous to our health. Yes, your shower might be toxic – but not to worry, with a few simple fixes we can greatly reduce our risk.
Showers, Chlorinated Water and Your Health
Most municipalities treat their water with chlorine. Chlorine is universally used to disinfect, killing bacteria and other micro-organisms. But once it arrives in your home, chlorine can negatively affect your family’s long term health. Drinking chlorinated water can increase the risk of colon cancer and bladder cancer (particularly in men), as well as aggravate asthma and induce inflammation. As well, given that it’s intended to destroy bacteria, it can disrupt the beneficial bacteria in our gut – and as we know, gut health is essential to our overall health.
While reducing the amount of chlorine in our drinking water is important, it doesn’t eliminate our everyday consumption of this chemical.
Evidence indicates that showering in chlorinated water might actually be worse than drinking it.
A ten-minute shower or a 30-minute bath is equivalent to drinking two litres of chlorinated water. Most of us aren’t able to chug two litres of water in such a small amount of time, so every time we shower we are accelerating our exposure.
Let’s not forget that our skin is our largest organ and while it definitely protects our insides from everything outside, our skin is not impermeable. When our shower water is hot, or even warm, our beautiful pores are wide open – meaning we’re setting out the welcome mat for chemicals to enter our bodies.
The Heat Factor + Chlorine In Your Shower
When we bathe in hot chlorinated water, chlorine is not only being absorbed through our skin but as it vaporizes we’re also inhaling it into our lungs, which can affect their function. When you breathe in the fumes, the vapors bypass the digestive system and are inhaled directly into your bloodstream. That is why breathing these compounds in the shower is even worse than drinking them.
How Chlorine Byproducts May Harm Your Health
And it’s not just chlorine we need to be concerned about. When chlorine interacts with other compounds in the water, it forms other harmful byproducts like trihalomethanes, chloramines (these are formed when ammonia is added to water) and chloroform (yes, the stuff that doctors and dentists used to use to knock people out).
Other research indicates that as we shower, chlorine vapours spread beyond the bathroom and into the rest of the home, increasing our airborne exposure to these volatile chemicals.
Chlorine is an oxidizing agent: when it encounters organic materials it produces new toxins we need to be concerned about. Its chemicals react with other chemicals to produce way worse chemicals: the poison produced is worse than the sum of its parts.
The poison produced is worse than the sum of its parts.
One local study of Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton calculated the risks of trihalomethane exposure through inhalation and the skin during showers and bathing. The study predicted 36 total cancer incidents in these cities just from showering alone. Another European study found that lifetime exposure to trihalomethanes via showers and baths increased the risk of bladder cancer.
Chlorine byproducts in our water sources are associated with an increased risk of:
Given that most of us bathe on a regular basis, we’re exposing ourselves to a boatload of chemicals. The good news, we can greatly reduce our risk by using a shower filter. They’re easy to install and are inexpensive.
Key Advantages of Using a Filter for Your Shower
A good quality shower (and/or bath) filter can significantly reduce the health risks for people of all ages. They:
Provide a significant reduction of exposure to chlorine and disinfection by-products (DBPs)
Filter out volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as some heavy metals such as lead and copper
Maintain free-flowing water and is easy to install
Require no effort on your part – aside from unscrewing shower head, attaching filter, and then screwing shower head to the filter.
Bath and Shower Filter Options To Consider
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.
Shower filters made with Clorogon, a blend of copper, zinc, and calcium sulfide, convert chlorine into chloride salt.
Can also find filters with just zinc and copper.
This new chloride salt is not as volatile as chlorine, and cannot evaporate.
To inhibit absorption of chlorine and chloramine from a bath, add 1000 mg of ascorbic acid (vitamin C).
Note: Carbon filters do not work in showers, as they can’t handle the high flow, and don’t work with warm water.
I am not recommending any one shower filter here because it’s important to first know what is in your water. This information should be listed on the municipal government website.
Shower Curtains and Your Health
Many shower curtains and shower curtain liners are made of a plastic called polyvinyl chloride (PVC). You know I’m not a fan of plastic in the slightest, and you can read all about the health effects of plastic here, as as well as some awesome plastic-free alternatives here.
Once we moved into our house, we installed a de-chlorinator on the whole house. This blocks the chlorine before it even enters and is a worthy investment. You will have to call a professional to install it and there are different companies in different cities.
However, prior to this, I used a simple shower filter. All I needed to do was replace the cartridge once a year. It’s perhaps one of the easiest ways for us to reclaim our health and reduce a little of our toxic load.
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