The salient point of the article:
"People should not be afraid of swimming, but we should get more research on whether there are better practices for disinfecting pools," said Manolis Kogevinas, an epidemiologist at the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona.
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Of course chlorine is toxic. Of course, that toxicity leads to some increase in risk.
The question is "How big is that increased risk compared with the dramatic health benefits of exercise?" I'm guessing that it is rather small.
The article itself doesn't measure long term healthy risks - it measures chemical properties of the water, and the skin of swimmers, which could lead to risk.
The risk is hypothetical.
If those risks were real and large, there would be studies that show "Swimmers have X amount of risk for Y condition compared with non-swimmers." You haven't seen those studies. If there is such a risk, it is pretty small.
Now, are there better water disinfectants than chlorine? I hope so. I don't like that stuff.
Mick Young
BS Chemistry, MS Public Health Statistics
The salient point of the article:
"People should not be afraid of swimming, but we should get more research on whether there are better practices for disinfecting pools," said Manolis Kogevinas, an epidemiologist at the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona.
****
Of course chlorine is toxic. Of course, that toxicity leads to some increase in risk.
The question is "How big is that increased risk compared with the dramatic health benefits of exercise?" I'm guessing that it is rather small.
The article itself doesn't measure long term healthy risks - it measures chemical properties of the water, and the skin of swimmers, which could lead to risk.
The risk is hypothetical.
If those risks were real and large, there would be studies that show "Swimmers have X amount of risk for Y condition compared with non-swimmers." You haven't seen those studies. If there is such a risk, it is pretty small.
Now, are there better water disinfectants than chlorine? I hope so. I don't like that stuff.
Mick Young
BS Chemistry, MS Public Health Statistics
