Shower Water Filter - Hidden Dangers of Taking a Shower
If you're not using a shower water filter, recent research studies conducted at the University Of Pittsburgh Graduate School Of Public Health may shock you into getting one. The studies show that you would get less chemical exposure from drinking contaminated water than using it to take a shower or wash your clothes.
What? There's more contamination in my shower than in my drinking water? My clothes are contaminating me? That can't be right, can it?
With a total area of approximately 1.8 square meters in adults, skin wins as the largest organ in the human body. That's a lot of surface area; no doubt about that. But I always thought that skin acted as a passive barrier to chemicals and bacterial agents. Now it appears I thought wrong. Drinking contaminated water may not be the only or main way I can expose myself to toxic chemicals. In fact, we've underestimated the impact of skin absorption of contaminants in municipal water. It seems that skin saturation rates for solvents are remarkably high. Under certain conditions, skin isn't even as effective a barrier to penetration as we thought. Wow!
And just when you're thinking you could live with the consequences, the news get worse. It seems the major threat caused by these water pollutants is far more likely to be as air pollutants right in your shower stall. Hot showers (109 °F) are especially bad. Unless there is a shower water filter attached, hot water releases up to 50% of the dissolved chloroform and 80% of the dissolved trichloroethylene (TCE) directly into the air as you shower.
Shower conditions become especially volatile when chlorine is present in the municipal water supply. Chlorine, combined with hot shower water, mixes more easily with other organic substances to form highly volatile, toxic chemicals that are more readily absorbed through the lungs into the bloodstream. Chloroform and TCE are two such combinations. In addition to contaminants getting through the skin to the body as a whole, contaminants can adversely affect the skin, hair colour and scalp. It can make your eyes itchy and runny or aggravate sensitive areas of the nose, throat and lungs making it difficult to breathe. All in all, not a great way to start the day!
Check out EPA's list of the most common volatile compounds identified in many municipal drinking-water supplies. The chemical contents of that list may surprise you.
Obviously the time has come to put an end to all those volatile chemical parties occurring in shower stalls all over the country. Meanwhile, you can help make things better by just remembering to lower water temperatures in your shower and washing machine to well below 109 °F. A simple shower water filter or ideally a whole house water filter system should take care of the rest.
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