Can a daily shower be bad for your health?
By nanajanet
@nanajanet (4436)
United States
June 4, 2009 9:46am CST
Ok, I am not saying being clean is bad for you, lol, but if you have chlorinated water, it can be.
I do not. We have well water that has no chemicals in it but studies are showing that cities that chlorinate the water to "purify" it are causing other problems. In fact, exposure to the chemicals in your shower and the steam a hot shower produces, including chlorine, chloroform, trichloroethylene (TCE), and hydrogen sulfide, may cause cancer, respiratory illness, liver and kidney disease, and a whole host of other health problems.
Just getting wet and breathing while you’re in the shower.
Now they offer filters for the shower, which is an excellent idea. We have it for drinking water on our faucets in the kitchen. Unless you have a whole-house filter, this is a good idea. We absorb a lot, even through our skin.
That is one reason why we are looking for alternate filtration systems for our swimming pool and spa, too. I have been looking them up on "green sites" and found ones that work without chemicals. They are more expensive for starting costs but then you do not have to buy chemicals, so in the long run, it is cheaper.
Ah, if only water were the way it was BEFORE humans started contaminating it.
4 people like this
13 responses
@Electricskillet (31)
• United States
9 Jun 09
I agree! If your into sports then you know that you should not go swiming in a chlorinated pool before a game,or meet, because its a well known fact that the chlorine gets into your muscles causeing stress and the inablity to perform the way you would otherwise. so why would a city put chlorine in its peoples drinking and showering water that is an injustice to that citys people and has to be changed.
@nanajanet (4436)
• United States
9 Jun 09
I know that they do it to remove bacteria but there are safer ways to do it now. Ioniazation and also a way to use sonic waves has been found.
Bleach was invented in thelate 40's and it was used to kill our troops.
@calyxus (825)
• Philippines
4 Jun 09
The chemicals in our water systems nowadays is indeed alarming. And it is true, there are many side effects to over exposure to these chemicals.
Unfortunately, we can't reverse the processes that our 'waters' have gone through over the years. The fresh and calming effect of water we used to experience were now only in our memories.
But luckily, there are still some places on Earth where we could find a healthy supply of fresh water. There are still rainforests and springs that could soothe our nature's cravings. But the hard part is where to find them.
@nanajanet (4436)
• United States
4 Jun 09
Yes. One good thing about my well water is it comes straight from the mountains before it is polluted, but it still carries minerals, like lyme, that mess up my pipes but I hesitate to use water softener. They now have filters that use ions that I wish that I could afford to use.
Is it some kind of a spring water?
Does lyme have smell or something?
@Bevsue (251)
• United States
5 Jun 09
I, too, am somewhat concerned about the chlorine and other chemicals in our water. I will probably get one of those showerhead filter things when the price comes down a bit--at least I hope it will. Seems kind of expensive to me right now and I am not so worried at this point that I can justify the expense.
@nanajanet (4436)
• United States
5 Jun 09
That makes sense. Those filters really do take out a lot of chlorine.
@Buddha9000 (40)
• India
5 Jun 09
Taking shower in pure and normal water is healthy for our health as it cleans our body to give freshness. When the water is enrich with highly poisonous chemicals like manganese, chlorine, arsenic etc can cause serious affect our brain, nervous system and skins also. Most countries have stict guidelines for safe levels in water. I am thinking about our children, after ten years they would be exposed to manganese levels three times higher than now. It could seriously damage their brain and nervious system. I don't know what will do our scientists? Thanks for this serious discussion.
@nanajanet (4436)
• United States
5 Jun 09
Yes, it is very scary. What is scarier is that they decide to do something, thinking that it will help, but do not really do long-terms studies to make sure.
Of course, if they found way to keep pollution from our waters, it would silly to treat water, but too many people are lazy or do not care and put chemicals in the ground (like lawn chemicals, insecticides, etc.), that leach into our water, too. People do not realize what they put in the ground and down their drains also affects the water, and not just what is directly dumped into the water.
@galileo2008 (1168)
• Philippines
5 Jun 09
Too much body cleansing like daily shower can cause dryness to our skin. If there's a break in the integrity of our skin, bacteria can enter, and we don't want that to happen, do we? If possible, try to apply moisturizer afterwards. And about the chlorinated water, I think it's not really good for our skin for it can be a factor of cancer cell formation.
@mandeep1010 (9)
• India
5 Jun 09
hey i want to tell u that i love to take a shower and a hot bath but we faced this chlorine problem that ur telling . i read it in a local paper and after reading the efects we switched to a sumersible pump for our water supply it pumps out ground water and then filters it since then there hasn`t been a day that i have not taken my hot bath
@Sherry8888 (38)
• China
5 Jun 09
i agree with you.So i often take a bath every other day in cooler weather.
@NettyB (335)
• United States
4 Jun 09
I have never really given this much thought. But I only bathe/shower about 3X week, unless I have been doing something to get sweaty, dirty etc. If we all bathe every day there is NO way we would be able to afford that water bill. We are always trying to conserve.
@amanda08 (647)
• United States
4 Jun 09
We live in a small town... there is less than 30,000 people here and we live in the Ozark mountains, but our city water smells very strongly of chemicals... almost like pool cleaner.... anyway I can see how this water would cause problems... and yes we absorb so much through our skin.. although it does serve as a barrier when you are bathing/showering daily in chemicals it cannot be healthy.. Maybe that is why the cancer rates are so high these days... I think we have brought most cancers on ourselves, bless our hearts... it was inevitable that with so many chemicals polluting our environment it would eventually start harming mankind... the things we do to survive... yet they also seem to be haunting us in the longterm.... A filtration system should be mandatory and paid for by the wate companies I think... as they are the ones putting all these chemicals in our water to start with... even though they are just trying to help sanitize it.....
@navonly (901)
• India
4 Jun 09
Thats really an excellent information. Thank you so much friend. I really appreciate your knowledge about all this.
As far as taking shower by normal water is concerned, I think, even if you take shower twice or thrice a day, its good for your body and mind. Both your body and mind feel relaxed by taking shower. And all the germs on your skin is out. Also, the tiny holes of your body is cleared and open, which is really very necessary for out body.
Now coming to this Chlorine and other chemical water, I do agree with you, they can really be very harmful for our body. God knows, what else this science will give to us. At one hand its giving life to us, and on the other hand they are giving these kind of diseases and illness to us.
@gicolet (1702)
• United States
4 Jun 09
I shower daily with warm water except when I'm too sick to do so. I believe with everything you said and you have a very good information there. Our water is contaminated and to try to clean it with chlorine is not really a good idea. It's bad for our skin and dangerous for our eyes and women's private area. This is the reason I never take hot baths. My husband loves hot bath but it makes his skin so dry that he ask me to scratch his back daily. We've stopped applying chlorine in our swimming pool over 3 yrs ago when I noticed my daughter's skin started getting red and itchy every after swimming. I told my husband about this and he applied sea salt in our swimming pool instead of chlorine. The itching stopped.
@nanajanet (4436)
• United States
4 Jun 09
Do you have an above ground pool? My husband thinks that the sea salt would destroy the liner. We use bromine, as it has less chlorine, but would love to eliminate it completely.
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
6 Jun 09
I could see why it would be bad for you. Contaminates and chemicals. I would love for water to be the way it used to be. Chemicals for pools and spas can be very expensive so if you can get a filtration system to save on these in the longrun plus save your health..that is the way to go. Take care.
@hanah87 (1835)
• Malaysia
4 Jun 09
No,i dont think so.I bathe daily but never get any bad or worse disease.I just bathe for three times a day.I like to bathe because it will fresh back my body and mind.I dont bathe at late day, i just bathe from morning untill early eveny and never will bathe at late night.I afraid if i get lung cancer.
