busyA Really Good Reason to Shower Before Hopping in the Pool
Chemicals used to treat both drinking water and swimming pool water reacts with organic material to form disinfection by-products (DBPs). Ho-hum... why should we care, right?
We should care because when you add swimmers to a pool you have just added lots of organic material. A new study by the University of Illinois shows that of the hundreds of compounds created, some are toxic, some cause birth defects, some cause cancer and others are genotoxic, which means that they damage DNA.
I don't care if the government thinks that the original chemicals or their byproducts are "safe" in drinking water in certain amounts. The byproducts are particularly alarming: after all, when you swallow drinking water, it contacts the "organic material" of your body. I look around at the skyrocketing rates of cancer, infertility, birth defects, and other health problems and generally conclude that the government is doing a downright pathetic job of protecting people from contaminants. I want drinking water that is actually clean and pure, containing neither pathogens nor chemicals.
April 9 2009, 21:45:48 UTC 12 years ago
These compounds they say are toxic have probably been fed to rats at the rate of 20g per day. Most compounds are toxic at those levels, (like salt for instance) that's what tox studies are for; to push the chemical until they see what kind of toxic it would be in monumental quantities.
Don't worry, go swimming! Nobody died of it.
April 9 2009, 22:39:05 UTC 12 years ago