August 21st, 2009 | 
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Bob Goodhand is an advocate for home and personal water purification systems to protect and promote healthy living. Visit his site at http://natural-purified-water.com/
to discover the drinking water filters that Bob recommends.
Posts Tagged ‘Showering’
Is Tap Water Safe For Bathing and Showering? Want to Know?
When was the last time you thought about this? If the answer is never or it has been awhile, you may be endangering yourself and, most importantly, your family. So you need to inform yourself on the topic.
If you’re wondering is tap water safe for bathing and showering, you’re not alone. Scientists have looked at the question and revisited it. There are specific health problems that are associated with it and many that are aggravated by it. Here’s what you need to know about taking a bath in chlorinated water.
Thousands of other chemicals are found in publicly treated water-supplies, due to industrial spills, farm run-off and other sources. Treatment facilities do what they can to reduce those contaminants, but after all is said and done they add the one with the most potential to do harm after other purification processes are done.
Chlorine is added by the majority of treatment facilities throughout the world to kill pathogens (bacteria, viruses, etc) and to control algae-growth in the pipelines. Chlorine is toxic to the nervous system, but it does an effective job at killing bacteria and clearing cloudiness. When boiling is not possible, adding unscented household chlorine bleach is recommended for emergency situations, in which drinking water has been contaminated.
Many years ago, scientists wondered is tap water safe for bathing and showering. At that time, they said that at levels present in publicly treated supplies, chlorine exposure during the shower is only hazardous to people that are allergic to it. Chlorine filters for the showerhead were originally developed for people that have chlorine allergies.
As time went by, hairdressers began to recommend them for their clients with dry hair and particularly for models. If models did not have a showerhead filter, they were told to wash their hair in bottled spring-water, before an important shoot.
Eventually, dermatologists wondered is tap water safe for bathing and showering, especially for their patients that had dry skin, eczema or psoriasis. It is a harsh chemical and people with skin conditions are particularly sensitive to it. Now, many dermatologists recommend a showerhead filter for all of their patients.
Finally, scientists revisited the question, because the original studies were not conducted using hot water. If you’re wondering is tap water safe for bathing and showering for anyone, the answer is no. When the water is heated, cancer-causing chemicals are released and we inhale them. They are absorbed through your skin and enter the bloodstream by two separate routes. They are known as THMs and they are actually byproducts of chlorine. Scientists originally believed that the only risk of exposure was from drinking, but now, they know better.
The increased incidence of cancer among people with chlorinated water was originally thought to be due to chlorine, itself. When, in fact, it is actually the byproducts produced when chlorine interacts with bacteria that are the problems. THM exposure greatly increases a person’s risk of developing cancer at some point in his or her life.
Most showerhead filters on the market remove chlorine, but do nothing to reduce THM content. Read the performance data carefully, before you buy a product. It’s the only way to be sure that you are actually protected.
Your goal? To start utilizing this information your have just learned. If you buy an effective product, you will not have to wonder is tap water safe for bathing and showering. You’ll know that you and your family are protected and safe.
Answered: is Tap Water Safe for Bathing and Showering?
Even people that seem to understand that our water is not sanitary enough to be drinking can sometimes be heard to ask is tap water safe for bathing and showering? The primary reason that it is not is because of the chlorine that is present, along with the THMs that the chlorine disinfection process produces.
The biggest danger that comes from taking a bath in chlorinated water is that the chemical will be absorbed by your skin. Now if you like to spend time taking long luxurious baths then this could become a problem because the longer that you are sitting in the bath the more chlorine that your body will absorb.
When people ask me is tap water safe for bathing and showering I always point out that one of the most unhealthy things that you can do is sit in a tub of chlorinated water for an hour or more. Medical professionals have stated that spending a lot of time swimming in chlorinated water greatly increased your risk of developing cancer.
The reason that I bring that up is that the maximum amount of chlorine that is legally allowable in a swimming pool is three parts per million, while in your drinking and bath water the allowable limit is four parts per million. This means that the amount of chlorine typically found in your water at home is enough to shut down a public pool.
Is tap water safe for bathing and showering if you don’t spend an inordinate amount of time in the water? For a bath I would say that it was “safer”, but for a shower there is really no safe amount of time. If you are in the shower long enough for the water to produce steam then it is not safe for you to be in there.
Once steam has been produced you have to realize that what you are then breathing in is primarily chlorine. Chlorine vaporizes at a far faster rate than water does, and chlorine inhaled into the lungs goes almost immediately into the bloodstream. You take in about 6,000 times more chlorine this way than if you were to drink water all day.
When someone asks is tap water safe for bathing and showering I always make sure to tell them that there is really no safe contact that we can have with chlorine because it is this very chemical that many scientists and medical professionals pinpoint as the number one cause for the incredible increase in cancer over the last century.
What I tend to advise people to do if they want to keep their families safe is to either invest in both high quality water filters and showerhead filters. Some showerhead filters even have removable wands so that filling up the bathtub is a breeze. You might even opt to simply get a whole house filter to remove all doubt.
Is tap water safe for bathing and showering? You are most welcome to do your own research. For me, the answer is no, it is absolutely not safe I’m afraid.
Ask yourself This, is Tap Water Safe for Bathing and Showering?
is tap water safe for bathing and showering? Unfortunately there are many health risks that are involved with our contact with chlorinated water that go far beyond simple consumption of the product. You may even be surprised to learn that a hot shower in unfiltered water is one of the most damaging to your health.
The steam that fills your bathroom when you are engaged in a hot shower is extremely dangerous to inhale, because you are actually taking in far fewer water vapors than you are of chlorine. This is due to the fact that chlorine vaporizes far more quickly than water does.
When you are inhaling these deadly vapors your body is taking in around 600% more of the chlorine than you normally would through consuming unfiltered tap water. This is one of those statistics that almost screams the answer to the question is tap water safe for bathing and showering?
The fact that you are drawing this chemical directly into the soft tissue of your lungs also means that it is entering your bloodstream more quickly. This is a very dangerous situation to be in if you suffer from asthma or other bronchial related ailment, because chlorine could trigger an attack.
Chlorine is a severely powerful respiratory irritant. I think that the fact that it was originally used in the form of a chemical weapon proves beyond a shadow of a doubt how much damage to your body this chemical is capable of inflicting. Still you ask is tap water safe for bathing and showering?
You are not only inhaling the chlorine gas into your system, but you are also taking in chloroform. This is the natural state of the disinfection process byproducts THMs. If you are showering, bathing, or washing clothes or dishes in hot water you are releasing chloroform gas into your home.
To answer the other part of the question is tap water safe for bathing and showering, sitting in chlorinated bath water allows your body to absorb the chemicals through the pores of your skin also. This can be equally harmful as THMs is a known carcinogen, and soaking in hot bath water over a period of time can predispose you to developing cancer.
So what can be done to help prevent this from happening? A good showerhead water filter will go a long way in preventing or reducing the chance that you will suffer any negative effects that you normally would. If you purchase one that comes with a handheld massager or wand feature it makes filling up the bath with clean water a breeze.
I think that I have effectively answered the question is tap water safe for bathing and showering? It is extremely important for the health of you and your family that you buy showerhead water filters for every bathroom in the house. This is the one and only way that you can be assured that the future safety of your family is guaranteed.
