Q & A Library

Chlorine used to disinfect swimming pools is a health hazard and may trigger asthma in children. Among adults it has been linked with other health problems including bladder and rectal cancer and may increase the risk for coronary heart disease.

A Belgian study published in the June 2003 issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, a British journal, suggested that an irritant released when chlorinated water reacts with urine, sweat or other organic matter from swimmers increases the risk of asthma among children who regularly swim in public pools. The researchers took blood samples from 226 children who regularly swam in indoor pools. They found that the youngsters had accumulated high levels of an irritant called trichloramine, a substance believed to set in motion a process that destroys the cellular barrier that protects the lungs. Other blood samples showed that levels of trichloramine were elevated even among people who merely sat at the side of pools and didn't swim.

Even before these findings were published, I believed that inhaling chlorine fumes that accumulate in and around swimming pools was unhealthy. Swimming in chlorinated water can irritate your eyes and skin, as well as damage your respiratory passages and lungs.

I myself avoid pools and places that smell of chlorine. If you or your children do use chlorinated pools, consider wearing a mask and snorkel to protect your eyes from the irritating effects of the chlorine in the water. After swimming, leave the pool area and inhale fresh air to flush the gas out of your system. Shower quickly and thoroughly to wash it off your skin.

Sunblock won't help to protect you or your children against the effects of chlorine, but you can make a difference by lobbying local officials and pool managers to replace chlorine in public pools with safer, more modern disinfection methods. I use a silver-copper ion generator in my own pool that works very well. Other alternatives are available and worth exploring. Chlorine disinfection of water is obsolete.

Andrew Weil, M.D.