Are Showers Detrimental to Your Health?

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Are Showers Detrimental to Your Health?

by Hans R. Larsen, MSc ChE

 

What do birth defects, cancer, and fatigue have in common? They have all been

linked to everyday exposure to ordinary, chlorinated tap water.

Recent research has shown that our exposure to trihalomethanes and other

byproducts of water chlorination is much higher that previously thought(1,2,3).

As a matter of fact, it is now clear that the lifetime risk of developing cancer

from daily exposure to tap water is at least 20 in 100,000 person-years and may

be as high as 100 in 100,000(4).

These risk factors are significant. For instance, the lifetime risk of

developing leukemia from exposure to x-rays is estimated to be about 9 per

100,000 and that of developing breast cancer from x-ray exposure at about 50 per

100,000(5). Even the lifetime risk of developing Hodgkin's disease, a not

uncommon form of cancer, is only 3 to 5 times greater than the risk of

developing cancer from exposure to chlorinated drinking water(6).

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for setting standards

for acceptable levels of contaminants in drinking water. Their standard for

chloroform, the most common trihalomethane in chlorinated water, is 100 parts

per billion or 100 micrograms per liter of water. The EPA estimates that this

level of contamination results in an added lifetime cancer risk of about 2 per

100,000 person-years. The EPA considers a cancer risk of 1 per million

acceptable and a risk of 10 per 100,000 unacceptable(4).

The EPA bases its calculation of lifetime cancer risk on the assumption that the

average person consumes about two liters per day of drinking water. Many

researchers take issue with this assumption. A team from the Boston University

School of Public Health believes that the cancer risk from chlorinated water may

be 10 to 50 times higher than the EPA estimate(4). The reason for the

discrepancy is that the EPA considers the actual ingestion of drinking water as

being the only source of trihalomethanes.

It is, however, clear that we take in much more chloroform from bathing,

showering, and doing the laundry than we do from actually drinking chlorinated

water. Some studies have shown that the amount of chloroform that we absorb from

a daily shower by inhalation and skin absorption is at least equal to the amount

absorbed from drinking water and may be as much as 6 times higher(4). The cancer

causing potential of inhaled chloroform is estimated to be about 20 times

greater than the danger from ingested chloroform but may be as much as 75 times

greater(4). What all this adds up to is that the danger of developing cancer

from exposure to chlorinated drinking water is much greater than the authorities

would like us to believe.

Evidence of this danger is now accumulating. As early as 1987 researchers at the

National Cancer Institute reported that people who drank chlorinated water were

twice as likely to develop bladder cancer than were people drinking

non-chlorinated water(7). More recently, researchers at the New Jersey

Department of Health reported that mothers who had been drinking water with a

high level of trihalomethanes were more likely to give birth to babies with low

birth weight and various birth defects(8). Researchers at the University of

Arizona reported in 1990 that children whose parents had been exposed to

drinking water contaminated with trichloroethylene were three times more likely

to be born with congenital heart disease than were children whose parents had

not been exposed to the contaminated water(9).

The bottom line is that the use of chlorinated water poses a significant risk.

Fortunately, it is a risk which can be eliminated relatively easily. One way is

to lobby your municipality to replace their chlorination plant with a treatment

plant using ozone or ultraviolet light to kill harmful bacteria. Another way is

to filter your municipal water through an activated carbon filter. In view of

the much higher cancer risk from showering and bathing it is clearly not enough

to just filter the drinking water and a small filter under the sink simply won't

do the job. An activated carbon filter to filter the entire supply for a home

costs less than $1,000 and is equipped with a backwash arrangement which

prevents the build-up of harmful bacteria. The filter element usually lasts

about five years. Reverse osmosis, microfiltration, and distillation by

themselves are not good choices for your " home treatment " as they do not remove

chloroform and other trihalomethanes(10). A measure that can

be taken immediately to reduce your exposure to inhaled chloroform is to make

sure your bathroom fan is on or your bathroom window is open both when you take

a shower as well as some time after. This can reduce your exposure by as much as

30 per cent(3).

In conclusion, the risk of developing cancer from exposure to chlorinated water

is significant. The EPA is vastly under-estimating this risk and their allowable

chloroform content of municipal water of 100 parts per billion is too high. Not

only is the limit too high, but there are many indications that it may not be

adhered to. In 1982 alone there were over 70,000 violations of drinking water

standards by municipal systems in the United States(11).

 

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REFERENCES

 

Jo, Wan K., et al. Routes of chloroform exposure and body burden from

showering with chlorinated tap water. Risk Analysis, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1990, pp.

575-80

McKone, Thomas E. and Knezovich, John P. The transfer of trichloroethylene

(TCE) from a shower to indoor air: experimental measurements and their

implications. Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, Vol. 41, No.

6, June 1991, pp. 832-37

Wilkes, Charles R. and Small, Mitchell J. Inhalation exposure model for

volatile chemicals from indoor uses of water. Atmospheric Environment, Vol. 26A,

No. 12, 1992, pp. 2227-36

Maxwell, Nancy Irwin, et al. Trihalomethanes and maximum contamination

levels: the significance of inhalation and dermal exposures to chloroform in

household water. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, Vol. 14, 1991, pp.

297-312

The Complete Book of Cancer Prevention, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA, 1988, p.

407

Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology, 4th edition, J.B. Lippincott

Company, Philadelphia, PA, 1993, p. 162

Cantor, K.P., et al. Bladder cancer, drinking water source, and tap water

consumption: a case- control study. Journal of the National Cancer Institute,

Vol. 79, No. 6, December 1987, pp. 1269-79

Bove, Frank J., et al. Public drinking water contamination and birth

outcomes. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 141, No. 9, May 1, 1995, pp.

850-62

Goldberg, S.J., et al. An association of human congenital cardiac

malformations and drinking water contaminants. Journal of the American College

of Cardiology, Vol. 16, No. 1, July 1990, pp. 155-64

The Complete Book of Cancer Prevention, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA, 1988, p.

266

The Complete Book of Cancer Prevention, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA, 1988, p.

264

 

 

This article was first published in International Health News in December 1995

 

 

 

 

 

 

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