Showering: Is Your Health at Risk? (Part 1)

Peter McGarry

For the past decade, people have focused on the importance of clean drinking water. Purified drinking water reduces or eliminates chemicals found in normal tap water. However,the body derives its need for water from alternative sources, most notably while showering.

It is common practice in North America to shower on a daily basis, sometimes more than once. Unfortunately, most people are unaware that more chlorine is absorbed through the skin during the average shower than by drinking six to eight glasses of tap water. This may make one wonder,how clean is shower water?

Are you a fan of hot showers?

Since the skin is porous, it is the body’s way of excreting toxins and regulating temperature, hot showers cause the pores of the skin to dilate, allowing chlorine and other free radicals to be rapidly absorbed. Chlorine is also contained within the water vapor that enters the air as steam, and which we breathe into our lungs as we shower. Dr. Halina Brown, a professor of water chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, claims that the exposure to vaporized chemicals in water supplied through showering,bathing and inhalation is 100 times greater than through drinking the water.

Furthermore, chlorine and other water contaminants reduce the effectiveness of many shampoos, conditioners, lotions, oils and skin creams, leaving your skin dry and unnourished.

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