Chlorine & Cancer

[Echidna]

Recent studies have shown that chlorine byproducts (when reacting with urine, sweat, dirt, make-up, perfume etc) are carcinogenic.

I tried to find more details about said studies, and everyone seems to refer to one and the same study, done in Barcelona/Spain.

It's this study that found many cases of bladder cancer in lifeguards and avid swimmers.
I am not sure if other studies have been conducted, and if their results are the same.

Now, while I find that highly alarming, I'd like to ask the community, which consists of many avid swimmers most of who frequent chlorinated pools, as well as pro swimmers and athletes:

did any of you have problems in this regard? Developed cancer after swimming for many years in chlorine?
Know any other athletes/pro swimmers who did have cancer?

My thinking is, if this study has it right, there should be a whole lot of info on it.
After all, synchro swimmers (for example) train up to 9 hours in chlorine, and the pools where competitions and olympics are held are chlorinated too.

So we should deal with hundreds of bladder cancer ridden athletes I guess?

I don't think every pro swimmer has a private pool to train.
(The risk in a private pool is very low, provided you shower before and don't pee in it :p ).

[AniaR]

Yes I have interstitial cystitis and the pool water really hurts my bladder and my urologist thinks it has contributed to my illness progression. It is not cancer but is treated with cancer meds.

[AniaR]

Info on chlorine is often suppressed by governments that put it in drinking water

[Echidna]

Info on chlorine is often suppressed by governments that put it in drinking water
I can understand that, as many warmer countries rely on chlorine for their drinking supply (especially islands), however most European countries don't put chlorine into tapwater unless in unusually long, hot droughts and we don't hear anything about it here either.

but ye, it's probably hushed up because no one would visit public pools anymore, which are the worst offenders :/

[Meilyn]

This is quite a scary thought :|

[Echidna]

I know!
if you don't have access to natural water or a private pool, the best one can do is looking for the least frequented pool one can find, and/or one that uses UV/Ozone technology to minimize the chlorine.

really bad are public fun centres with leisure pools and lots of families with small children.
each time I swim in such a thing, my entire face swells to a red pulp and only over the course of one day gets back to normal :p

all pools here are constantly overcrowded, so I'm looking into other options.

[Meilyn]

I know what you mean. The more visits my local pool gets, the worse it feels for my body too cause they up the chlorine so high :/
But I'm moving to a new house and I'll be trying to coordinate and talk to our new neighbors into letting me set up a portable, giant pool for the summer in a clearing across from our new place.

We don't have a backyard big enough to accommodate such a pool, but I'm gonna try my best to create one for myself across the street

[AniaR]

In the thread about handling chlorine I posted some tips about helping detox it from your body. I have started taking kelp tablets (they contain iodine) and it makes a huge drastic difference for me. When I first started, I'd take one just after swimming and within an hour nasty symptoms were gone. Now I take one the day before the day of, the day after, and I'm great.

Bromine pools are a lot easier on people's systems, and many chlorine pools are switching to that now.

But yes, in North America, most public water has chlorine in it. Government actively suppresses and muzzles scientists when they come out with info about it.

But as a carcinogenic, it's like most others. We're surrounded by them daily. It's really a combination of people's genetic disposition and their environment. I find more than anything, chlorine just ages my skin super fast. It took me a while to find a good skin routine to calm my skin down and turn the clock back a wee bit.

[Echidna]

Bromine pools are a lot easier on people's systems, and many chlorine pools are switching to that now.

you sure about this?
I read that Bromine, while not having the tell-tale "people pissed in the water!"-chloramine smell, is even worse for health than chlorine.

There are methods which use only little chlorine (combined with ozone/UV), but there is about one public pool in the country which already uses this
:thumbdown:

it's been the standard for years in private pools, spas and whirlpools though.
as always, the poor have to dip in the toxins, and the rich are chillin' out in the harmless good stuff. :p

[artorias]

Hello, what medicines can be taken to fight cancer?

[valkyrie]

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