Excess exposure to chlorine makes us sick!

I wondered if swimming in a chlorinated pool could effect someone healing from leukemia so I did a Google search on this search term: chlorine leukemia link. Consequently I was really surprised at the preponderance of evidence linking chlorine exposure to leukemia. (Of course it seems logical since chlorine is a biocide and there is no life form that can stand up against it.)

Here is an National Institute of Health study: [Link]
Medical News Today has some news about a study done on European children [Link]

We have to start using less chlorine in our pools and utilize proven alternatives despite the added costs.

USA Swimming, the United States Masters Association, and we swimmers should push our local communities, our park pools, our colleges and universities to adopt better water filtration systems such as ozone and/or osmosis to purify our water. It may not eliminate the need for chlorine entirely but it would greater reduce our exposure and risks of autoimmune issues.

Here is some posts I wrote last year about ozone based pools and chlorine exposure:

Chlorine pools tied to more colds

Chlorine: Biocide, chemical weapon, used in insecticides, dyestuffs and it plays havoc with skin, hair and possibly our immune systems!

Well known water facilities using ozone to treat their water:

• Disneyland and Disney World for all their water features
• Mirage Resort, Las Vegas
• San Diego Zoo, San Diego, CA for their marine and Aquatic habitats
• Vancouver Aquarium, Vancouver, Canada -for their Sea mammal support systems

I have been swimming at the the Santa Monica College pool that primarily uses osmosis and chlorine to filtrate it's water. I have notice that I have suffered fewer illnesses this year as a result.

From Europe, a No-Chlorine Backyard Pool

The New York Times has an article about self-cleaning pools for the backyard that use no chlorine. Invented in Europe these pools meet strict EU water quality standards. From the article:

• The pools have skimmers and pumps that circulate the water through the regeneration zone and draw it across a wall of rocks, loose gravel or tiles, to which friendly bacteria attach, serving as an additional biological filter. Unlike artificial ponds, which tend to be as murky with groundwater runoff and sediment from soil erosion as the natural ponds they’re modeled on, in a natural pool the water is clear enough to see through to the bottom. [Link]
  

Chlorine pools tied to more colds

Here is an MSNBC article sent to me by Trevr; (check out his blog link in the right-hand navigation), that states pool workers and swimmers are prone to more colds due to a mixture of chlorine, sweat, and urates. (Urates is a polite word for urine.) Makes sense, since mixing chlorine, sweat, and ammonia has to make for one heck of a caustic martini. Here is the story at MSNBC: [Link]

But there is a solution! Take the acid and the chlorine out of water completely and replace the chemicals with an ozone purification system. Ozone works amazingly well and produces water completely free of bacteria and viruses of any kind. Thus, the water will be safer for pool workers, swimmers and the ozone layer.

The image above comes from the European Space Agency from a GOME measurements of chlorine activation over the Arctic circle. Chlorine is bad "mojo" for both the ozone layer and our air quality so why are we using it when there is a better solution that is cleaner, safer, and has been in use on an industrial scale for the past 50 years?

Another byproduct of ozonated water is that the water has a clarity to it that chlorine or other chemicals can't match. Here are some links explaining how it works. The first link is to an ozone pool product site, the next two are independent news articles, [Air Tree] - [Water Tech Online] - [Daily Yomiuri Online]