Swimming pools have been a source of relaxation and recreation for years. However, the efforts made to sanitize these pools with harsh chemicals such as chlorine which apart from causing minor physical irritations have been said to cause severe health problems, most alarmingly bladder cancer. These new suites of studies have identified more than a hundred chemical byproducts in pools that have chlorine in them for the purpose of disinfection.
The study shows that chlorine and disinfectants used in recreational pools have adverse consequences on our health, especially when it comes to breathing problems such as asthma. The connection of chlorine with bladder cancer occurs when the disinfectants in chlorine byproducts react with iodide and bromide in the water along with other organic matter such as dead skin, hair and sweat.
The most alarming results that showed how chlorine can cause bladder cancer in pools were derived after observing people after forty minutes of swimming. They showed a large rise in markers of DNA damage that act like possible carcinogens. The concentration of the four most common cancer causing byproducts went up seven times more after the people swam.
The chemical byproducts of chlorine can permeate through the skin and enter our bodies. We also get exposed to the chemical by breathing the air at the surface of the water where they are most volatile. When the swimmers are swimming vigorously they breathe faster and end up getting more exposure.
Scientists are advising swimmers to exercise caution in chlorinated pools as studies have suggested that chlorine and its byproducts are likely to cause asthma, airway irritation and different allergic diseases especially in infants and children.
They suggest that we should start looking for alternative solutions for sanitizing our swimming pools, instead of resorting to the use of harsh chemicals such as chlorine and its byproducts. These alternatives include ozone, copper and silver ions to treat swimming pools as these elements do not react adversely with the human body.
Some pools have started using alternative methods of pool cleaning such as with natural oxygen technology systems which manages to remove minerals from the pool without using salt or brine and have been reported to be safer and healthier than regular pool cleaning methods such as with chemicals.
Pool Ionizers are also popular devices that sanitize pools without using chlorine. These devices supply a stream of copper and silver ions into the pool water. These ions work together to sanitize the pool, with copper ions working as algaecides and silver ions working as bactericide. A Pool Ionizer is simply something that generates ions by means of a chemical process called electrolysis with little to no self-regulation.
A Bio Sanitizer performs the same function as Pool Ionizer but incorporates an on-board computer and environmental sensors to monitor and regulate the amount of ions being generated into the swimming pool’s environment.
If you use a Bio Sanitizer you would not need to rely on dangerous chemicals like chlorine for the sanitization of your swimming pool.
Resources:
http://news.discovery.com/human/chlorinated-pools-swimming-cancer.html
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2010/July07/Pages/swimming-pool-disinfectants-and-cancer.aspx