Chlorine has been used for years to disinfect our water and protect us from dangerous bacterial diseases, but recent studies suggest that chlorine and its by products could also harm our health. Below, read more about chlorine and filters that can help protect you:

Using a filter for your tap water helps filter out chlorine, but new evidence suggests that your body absorbs as much or more chlorine by products during your daily shower as it does from drinking unfiltered tap water. (1)

Fast Facts:

* …�?the University of North Carolina found that chlorine by products increase significantly in the bloodstream after showering. (1)

* Research has linked chlorine by products to an increased cancer risk and reproductive problems like miscarriage. (2) (3)

* Environmental Working Group announced in January that pregnant women should consider taking shorter showers and use chlorine-trapping filters for their water to help decrease their risk of miscarriage and birth defects. (4)

* Chlorine attacks natural oils of the skin and bonds with hair protein to make your hair difficult to manage. It also can cause itching, blotches, rashes, and other irritations.

Decrease Your Risk: Get a Chlorine Reducing Shower Filter! We asked our in-house expert Annie B. Bond what she tells her friends and family to do to reduce their chlorine exposure, and she recommended water filters for drinking water, baths, and showers. (Of course, she points out, people using well water should get their water tested regularly, but don't need to filter out chlorine!)

Though a water filtration system for your sink can be expensive, a good shower filter is surprisingly affordable. [http://www.care2.com/go/z/2384]

Care2 believes in the best; that is why we just partnered with Green Home for …�? the best chlorine removing shower filter around, made by Rainshow'r.

and in another newsletter, I see this: {excerpted}

..... to eliminate bacteria and algae, [a friends] pool is treated with a salt ionization processes instead of chlorine. The downside to this is that his pool doesn't have that classic summertime aroma. The upside? [this] pool doesn't promote atherosclerosis.

... Dr.A.Spreen, starts at the top and says the pores of the scalp are highly absorbent.
"As someone who spent a TON of time in chlorinated water ...., there is NO question that swimming in American pools is far worse than showering...the chlorine levels are much worse in the pool. That's haunted me for years. Even worse, however, would be a hot tub...they are positively loaded with chlorine."

[He] adds that inhalation of chlorine (especially in a hot tub and the shower) is also a problem.

....a book titled "Coronaries/Cholesterol/Chlorine" by Dr. Joseph Price...... explains how chlorine intake contributes to narrowing of the arteries.

... "Price found that American kids dying in car wrecks at home had far less atherosclerosis than kids the same age killed in Vietnam. His conclusion was that the only thing different was all the chlorine tablets the troops had to dump into all water supplies to be able to drink available water over there.

"He then took chickens (which for some reason have arteries like humans) and tested chlorinated and non-chlorinated water on them. He found that the highly reactive nature of the chlorine molecule scars the arterial intima [the inner lining of the artery]. The body protects itself by painting a thin film of cholesterol over the damaged area. It's not the cholesterol that kills, it's the continual need for protection against the scars that eventually gets out of hand."

.... another key point to support the link between chlorine exposure and atherosclerosis. Dr. Price notes that heart disease is a modern health problem. Mainstream nutritionists tell us that high-fat diets are to blame, but high-fat diets were common in the 19th century while heart disease was rare. Meanwhile, the steady growth of heart disease rates throughout the 20th century parallels the steady increase in the use of chlorine in our water, paper, clothing, insecticides, paints and cleaning products.

from the July 19/07 HSI e-Alert

see also 2 other posts about Tap Water, Below