by D. P. Noe

Created on: July 11, 2009   Last Updated: March 18, 2011

Everyone is exposed to certain risks in our environment every day simply by the mechanism of breathing. There are toxins in every breathe we take, but if you had the chance to avoid a toxin then would you avoid that risk? Ask yourself a simple question if you would jump off a cliff if someone said jump?  Are you aware that swimming in a pool treated with chlorine is the equivalent of jumping off that cliff?  Protect your health and your family and educate yourself about the dangers of chlorine.

If you are interested in protecting our environment and protecting your health, avoiding chlorine should be on your list. There is significant amount of evidence and research to support that avoiding chlorine is a sound decision. Any smart parent will protect their children and themselves from unnecessary exposure to this chemical.

There is one point to get across clearly in this article and that is that chlorine is dangerous. Are you aware that your skin is the largest organ in the body? If you are swimming, think of your skin as a sponge absorbing large amounts of this deadly chemical. The danger here is that if you have long term exposure to this chemical chlorine, it leads to the production of free radicals in your body. Free radicals can cause tremendous damage to the cells in your body because they are considered to be carcinogenic.

If you have children that are swimming in chlorinated pools, this can increase the risk of having a asthma attack. Chlorine is also a substance that irritates the skin and even causes burns with direct exposure. Chlorine burns your eyes and your throat. Children have very sensitive skin and it is a wise decision for any parent to make sure their children are not swimming or playing in any pools with chlorine.

There is a another interesting point for you to consider. Water evaporates, as water evaporates in the swimming pool the chlorine evaporates right along with it. This releases chlorine into its gaseous state into the environment. So another danger is the parent sitting at the side of the pool being exposed to the gaseous vapors of chlorine. The non swimming group at the side of the pool can have high level of trichloramines in their blood. Trichloramines are released when the chlorine water in the swimming pool reacts to organic materials such as sweat or urine. Trichloramine is suspected to cause the destruction of cells that surrounds your lungs and increases your cancer risk. This is a cause for concern because

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