I am 47years old and have returned to swimming as a fitness choice. I get 3 workouts of 2500yds/week and feel great. I also have an inground pool that my family enjoys in the summer months. My question relates to the long term consequences of chlorine exposure. Do studies exist that show whether swimmers have an increased health risk to cancers? Has anyone looked at pool chlorine exposure as a health risk in any way? The pools I swim in all use chlorine as a sanitizer and I would hate to think my exercise regimen may be doing me more harm than good!
This is a serious question and deserves some air time. As a retired coach and pool manager, I feel I have some good ideas. First, let me tell you about the chemical factory I swim in. This is a fairly new 25 yard - 8 lane pool in a High School. It has an Ozone System for sanitizing the water. Unfortunately, no-one seems to know how to run it and so the pool personnel (janitors) just continue to use Chlorine ! Incredible ! After I do my workout in the evening, I must not only shower like a surgeon readying for an operation, I must also completely cover myself with the lotion du jour or else suffer a night of scratching and listening to my wife say " you stink". Even with this, I worked out Thur. night and by the Sat. AM shower at home, Chlorine was still to be smelled coming from my pores. That ain't right, folks !
Now, I have read articles that suggest Chlorine may be hazardous to teeth and I darn sure know that it sets off my allergies bigtime. I take an anti-histamine before and after for this very reason. Don't tell me Chlorine is not an allergen ! By the way, goldfish will not survive in tap water that has 1/100th of the Chlorine in most pools.
In 1986 !!!, I swam in the Worlds at Tokyo, Japan. There was no chlorine in the pool and we could all swim without goggles.
Here's the problem : Many pools in the USA are run or serviced by boneheads who do not have to swim in the soup they create. The standard line is to just add chlorine and then try to cancel it out with Soda Ash. Most of us spend all of our aquatic time swimming in dilute Hydrochloric acid. Anyone else care to weigh in ??? :mad:
This is a serious question and deserves some air time. As a retired coach and pool manager, I feel I have some good ideas. First, let me tell you about the chemical factory I swim in. This is a fairly new 25 yard - 8 lane pool in a High School. It has an Ozone System for sanitizing the water. Unfortunately, no-one seems to know how to run it and so the pool personnel (janitors) just continue to use Chlorine ! Incredible ! After I do my workout in the evening, I must not only shower like a surgeon readying for an operation, I must also completely cover myself with the lotion du jour or else suffer a night of scratching and listening to my wife say " you stink". Even with this, I worked out Thur. night and by the Sat. AM shower at home, Chlorine was still to be smelled coming from my pores. That ain't right, folks !
Now, I have read articles that suggest Chlorine may be hazardous to teeth and I darn sure know that it sets off my allergies bigtime. I take an anti-histamine before and after for this very reason. Don't tell me Chlorine is not an allergen ! By the way, goldfish will not survive in tap water that has 1/100th of the Chlorine in most pools.
In 1986 !!!, I swam in the Worlds at Tokyo, Japan. There was no chlorine in the pool and we could all swim without goggles.
Here's the problem : Many pools in the USA are run or serviced by boneheads who do not have to swim in the soup they create. The standard line is to just add chlorine and then try to cancel it out with Soda Ash. Most of us spend all of our aquatic time swimming in dilute Hydrochloric acid. Anyone else care to weigh in ??? :mad:
