We used to think shower head filters were just diversions for health nuts and individuals with susceptible skin and hair. I altered my mind after learning about numerous results of the studies. According to experts, purifying the water in your bathroom is more beneficial to your health than using the tap filtration system on your kitchen faucet.
Your showerhead is blasting you with chemical-laden water while you’re washing, scrubbing, and removing filth and bacteria off your skin. This could result in various health issues, ranging from allergic reactions and roughness to life-threatening illnesses.
In essence, if you don’t use a filter, you’re bathing in pesticides (and that is chlorine, it eliminates dangerous pathogens in water and beneficial bacteria in our body). Be careful, however, that scare tactics are prevalent, and claims regarding cutaneous chlorine uptake, for example, may be overstated.
Therefore, in today’s article, we will overview the benefits and risks of shower head filters explained by medical science. We will also figure out if shower filters work for hard waters; are they really necessary and worth buying?
What is a Shower Filter Head and How It Works?
A shower water filter does precisely what it says on the tin: it filters the water in the shower. Tap water may be safe to drink, clean with, and so on. But what about showering? Not at all.
You may be experiencing the impact of some chemicals in the water if your skin feels itchy and your hair feels lifeless after a purportedly pleasant showering. Shower filters are helpful in this situation. As soon as they’re connected to your current shower arm, they use appropriate filtering technologies to keep such chemicals from reaching your skin and hair.
To filter out pollutants, these techniques employ specific filtering media or mixtures of media, such as the famous GAC (Granular Active Carbon) and KDF (Kinetic Degradation Fluxion) KDF takes advantage of the redox process. At the same time, GAC captures and holds the molecules mechanically.
Previously, it was just intended to filter pollutants from the water and make it cleaner. The instrument improves with time, even going so far as to improve the water quality by discharging nourishing ingredients to improve our skin and hair health, which is a pleasant improvement.
Risks and Benefits of Shower Filter Heads
1. Save Money and Look Younger Than Ever!
There seem to be several compelling aesthetic reasons to invest in a shower head filter. The issue with even tiny quantities of chlorine in your shower water is that it binds to your hair and skin, eliminating humidity and upsetting the balance of beneficial microorganisms on your body.
As a consequence, your skin may become dry and inflamed. It can also cause wrinkles and discoloration, which are early indications of aging. A shower filter neutralizes the contaminants, keeping your skin smooth and lustrous from the very first usage. Do you have itching, red skin after taking showers? You might use a filter to assist you out.
The same may be said of your appearance. Chlorine depletes the natural oils that hydrate hair follicles, resulting in dry, stringy hair and a rough, inflamed head. Shower filters can help restore your hair’s natural gloss and structure while also reducing frizz and boosting flexibility.
You will not be the first person to regain their youthful, smooth, and lustrous hair. You’ll also save money since you won’t have to spend money on costly moisturizers, hot oil massages, or salon visits. After placing a filter, most have given up using moisturizer on their head due to scalp flakes.
The aging process is accelerated by chlorinated water. Several experiments have found that the effects of prolonged exposure to the sun are comparable.
2. Showerheads Contain Harmful Bacteria
Whenever you switch on the system and keep lathering your loofah, you apparently wouldn’t think about what’s flowing out of your shower head. But, Norman Pace, the Biology Professor at the University of Colorado, says that you’re not the only one in showers: thousands of germs and bacteria are stacked up within your unprocessed shower head, waiting to pour down on you the moment you turn the valve tap.
Pace oversaw research that examined 50 showerheads from throughout the region to ensure how often muck (called a biofilm) was accumulating inside and what precisely was crawling about in that filth.
His research found germs and microbes in 60% of the shower heads examined, with Mycobacterium avium, a disease that may cause lung illness, is perhaps the most common. Carcinogenic bacteria have been found in your shower head, according to the New York Times.
It may be all you have to know before deciding that you need a shower filter, but the advantages of doing so extend well beyond the grossness of showerhead gunk.
3. Inhaling More Chlorines When Showering Compared to Drinking Tap Water
Water treatment facilities utilize chlorine to eliminate dangerous germs in our water, but its by-products are harmful to humans. So if chlorine responds with contaminants in water, trihalomethanes (THMs) are formed, one being the cancer-causing chloroform.
It is commonly thought that even when you shower, the pores expand, allowing harmful chemicals like chlorine and its metabolites to penetrate deeper into your skin. Showering without the need for a water filter exposes you to much more chloramine and chlorine than simply consuming tap water.
In a study published by The Department of Community Health, potential health concerns associated with chlorine uptake are described as follows:
“Chlorine does not penetrate readily via the skin, but tiny quantities can flow along when individuals are exposed to bleach, chlorine gas, or coming into touch with high-chlorine water or soil. Though chlorine can enter through the skin in tiny portions, it is promptly excreted from the skin. Chlorine, especially in wet places, can hurt or burn the skin.”
According to Science News, after showering for 10 minutes, scientists found a 2.7ppb rise in chloroform inside the lungs in participants in the study. Skin absorbance and lung intake after a 10-minute bath were shown to be larger than the quantity absorbed by consuming eight glasses of the very same water when coupled with hot water reopening pores.
In addition to chlorine and chloroform, several airborne pollutants might well be ingested via open pores when bathing. Chemicals are absorbed via the skin and inhaled straight into the bloodstream, rapidly polluting your body and inflicting irreversible harm.
According to a 1992 study published in the American Journal of Public Health, persons who drink chlorinated water have a 15% to 35% higher risk of various cancers. According to the research, bathing in chlorinated water is also blamed for a lot of these health problems.
Furthermore, the bathroom is the single largest source of water pollutants released into the home’s air. The chemical pollutants evaporate at a far quicker pace than the fluid on its own when people shower. As a result, VOC gases are produced, containing far more significant chemicals than natural water. Quantities of this magnitude are believed to be 10 to 30 substantially greater.
4. Showering Can Lead to Cancer
Chlorine that has been vaporized and breathed is toxic to the liver. According to the Centers for Disease Control, people who consume hot baths are more vulnerable to chlorine and its harmful effects than those who drink untreated tap water. Since chlorine transforms into a gas when untreated water is heated, it is acquired via the skin or breathed.
Several studies suggest that the relationship between cancer and chlorinated water could be related to bathing rather than consuming chlorinated tap water. This is despite the fact that a meta-analysis previously discovered a relationship between consuming chlorinated water and cancer.
“Exposure to vaporized chlorine is 100 times more effective than consuming chlorinated water,” according to several sources such as the book Never Fear Cancer Again.
Over the last 20 years, studies have done several experiments and experiments to determine the consequences of chronic chlorine consumption.
According to a spokesperson from the United States Council on Environmental Quality, the “risk of cancer amongst people consuming chlorinated water is 93 times better than among all those who don’t consume chlorinated water.”
Two independent investigations, the one in Colorado and the other in Massachusetts, found chlorine and the by-product chloramine (chlorine combined with ammonia) were present inside the water and associated with an upsurge in the kidney bladder and rectum tumor fatalities.
5. Chlorinated Water Leads to Allergy Attack and Asthma
Patients have fewer episodes by utilizing shower head water filters to prevent allergens, asthma, and allergy. Despite improvements in outdoor air quality in recent decades, asthma among children has grown by more than 300 percent. According to researchers, poor ventilated air quality owing to synthetic chemicals, particularly from vaporized shower water, is thought to be a contributing factor.
In addition, since the Spring of 1990, the occurrence of sinus problems has grown considerably. Excessive (indoor) antibiotic and air pollution usage are thought to be contributing factors. Chlorine is reported to irritate the linings of the sinuses.
6. Pregnant Women Are Risk Prone to Chlorinated Water
A shower filter is essential for pregnant women to reduce chlorine absorption, which may endanger not only the health of the mother but also the unborn child’s.
Women who consumed went swimming or take baths in unprocessed water infused with chloramine and chlorine impurities experienced a variety of birth complexities, which would include premature births, stillbirths, low birth weight, premature births, and a variety of pregnancy complications varying from nerve pain to timid hearts, according to a research conducted by a group in the UK.
The few research cannot be used to make valid conclusions, primarily as no research focused on the impacts of bathing on pregnancies has been conducted. However, given the additional health risks, it might be preferable to be cautious than sorry.
7. Developmental Risks for Children
A hot shower or showering with unprocessed municipal water can be harmful to children’s growth. A research was carried out in Belgium to see if there was a link between schoolkids inhaling the atmospheric air indoor swimming pool and increased lung permeability and the formation of asthma.
Children who spent a lot of time at the pool had a greater chance of developing juvenile asthma, which may be severe in certain circumstances.
Individuals had even more destroyed epithelial tissue, that would be, the tissue that covers the internal organs of the lungs and compensates the outer layer of the skin. The research verifies the dangers of chlorine vapors to a children’s respiratory tract, not just in public swimming pools but also at households in baths and showers.
8. You Would Feel Better/Fitter After Bathing in a Shower Head
Do you ever feel worse during the long, warm bath than you did before you even stepped in? It’s possible that it’s caused by chlorine inhalation and consumption inside the body Chlorine poisoning can lead to physical exhaustion, sadness, and a weakened immune system, making it more difficult for your body to fight infectious illnesses and allergic responses.
A showerhead filtration will remove those noxious fumes, boosting your immune response and leaves your body feeling refreshed. Showers have recently been considered to be a significant source of indoor exposures to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), according to PubMed.
9. Aren’t We Exposed to a Ton of Chemical Pollutants Already?
Many as or more than 75,000 hazardous substances are used in our present industrialized world. There are 2100 of them in our public water supply. While bathing, some, if not all, of such poisons can be breathed and ingested.
Additional prevalent toxic substances, such as fragranced goods like washing powder and scented candles, some modern construction equipment, and some meals, minimize our susceptibility to chemicals vital to our health and wellness. A shower filter is an excellent and cost-effective place to start.
10. Achieve Healthy Hair & Skin
It all ultimately comes down to anything that resides inside the water, in this case. Until it reaches your bathroom infrastructure, municipal water undergoes a comprehensive cleaning and treatment process. Applying chloramine and chlorine to the water is one method that our municipalities ensure to disinfect the water. Chlorine is extremely powerful at eliminating germs, yet it is harmful to humans.
Chlorine, even within trim levels, may have a significant effect on the individual. Chlorine destroys not just the nasty bacteria we don’t want around but also kills the healthy bacteria. It destroys the Vitamin E and some other fatty acid oxidation that makes your skin supple and silky as it wipes over it. Rashes, itchy skin, dry skin, and even acne might result as a result of this.
The hair goes through the same treatment. The essential oils that preserve your tresses appearing healthier are stripped away by the chlorine in the water you use to wash them. Your hair may get dry and frizzy as a result of this.
A filtering shower head neutralizes the pollutants and leaving you flawless while providing all the moisture your hair and skin require.
Why Should You Use A Shower Head Filter?
Numerous reasons warrant the use of showerhead filters today. We’ve listed some of the main ones down below:
Chlorine
Chlorine is the principal contaminant that shower filters are designed to eliminate. Chlorine is a disinfectant frequently used in water treatment facilities to eliminate germs, and it is found in trace levels in drinking and showering water.
Chlorine absorption when bathing can have many harmful effects on human health, including:
- Lung and Throat Irritations
- Damage to the Hair and Skin
- Carcinogens (chloroform) exposures
- Asthma Complications
As these dangers are accurate, the methods used by many shower filter businesses to suggest that chlorine reaches your body aren’t as accurate as one may assume.
The idea that human skin accumulates chlorine during direct contact with water when bathing, for instance, is largely unsupported by research.
Only tiny quantities of chlorine penetrate via the epidermis, per the Department of Community Health, and are swiftly removed from the body.
Conversely, the majority of the chlorine that penetrates through the skin into your body when bathing comes from breathing chlorine gas that has evaporated during hot baths. Additional chlorine-related dynamic water pollutants, such as chloroform and trihalomethanes, are also inhaled by individuals while bathing.
Water Hardness
Shower filters also do not have the same ability to reduce water hardness as typical whole-house water softeners. When you have a hard water problem, you should invest in a whole-house water softener to avoid your piping and fittings problems.
If you’re a tenant, you must talk to your owner about it. If a shower filter effectively removes chlorine, the filtered water may appear less abrasive on your hair and skin, giving the impression of softened water.
Chloramines
Many shower filters likewise promise to eliminate residual chlorine from water sources occasionally used as a disinfectant rather than chlorine. On the other hand, shower filters have not been proven to remove chloramines in major studies or data. Residual chlorine is more difficult to eliminate than free chlorine.
Is It Necessary For You To Have A Shower Filter?
That relies on whether your city’s water is treated with chlorine or not. It could be possible to shower without a filter if you don’t have one.
Chloramine) is used by certain water providers to sterilize public water. This chemical also emits ammonia into the air, perhaps rendering it a much more hazardous cleanser. To discover what’s in your water, go to your water supply corporation’s website or call them. There are no shower filters that eliminate chloramine.
Chloramine is not always removed by filters that eliminate chlorine.
What is the Best Shower Filter; and How To Pick One?
Shower filters come in various types and brands, but perhaps the most efficient ones employ a kinetic degradation fluxion (KDF) filtration mechanism. Each sort of filter has pros and downsides, so knowing what you’d like to do is to filter out the remaining that can help you determine what type is ideal for you.
However, two-stage filter systems, Vitamin C, and carbon filters that use high-grade carbon produced from coconut shells rather than charcoal are typically regarded as the best shower filters. The Culligan shower filter is a popular and economical alternative.
● KDF Filters
KDF filters are made up of similar parts, zinc, and copper. When these different metals are pushed against one another, their mismatch produces small electric charges. Although the voltage is insufficient to harm people, it is sufficient to influence the precious metals in the water as it passes through the filters.
When water flows through all this charge, the available chlorine is separated from the rest of the water molecules. The chlorine then reacts with another metal, such as calcium, to form chloride, a water-soluble and completely safe electrolyte.
● Two-stage Filters
Two-stage filters decrease chlorine and many other pollutants while also improving the pH balance of the water. For filtering out chlorine and other pollutants, the first stage filter typically uses zinc and granulated copper. Activated carbon is used in the second stage filter to remove extra contaminants.
● Carbon Shower Filters
The most popular form of filtering is a carbon shower filter comparable to the Brita faucet filters. Since this activated carbon utilized internally is very inexpensive, it is a far less expensive form of filtering.
An excellent choice is the Sprite Chlorine Reducing Shower Head. On the other hand, carbon filters are only suitable for use in water pitchers or kitchen sinks.
● Vitamin C Filters
Vitamin C filters are the finest, but they aren’t the most famous. They take out a whopping 99 percent of chlorine in water, while others only filter out 20 to 80 percent. Vitamin C filters also remove most chloramines and particles.
One tube of ascorbic acid is used in the filter that reacts with chloramine and chlorine and neutralizes them. However, they are rather costly, and the ascorbic acid substitutes do not last highly longer. In regards to Vitamin C filters, this Sakani filtration is at the top of the heap.
Final Thoughts
Showering is usually a pleasurable experience. Showering in the mornings may wake you up and prepare you for the rest of the day while showering in the nights can wipe away several of your worries before you hit the bed ultimately.
Is A Shower Head Filter Really Necessary? posted first on http://sh0werheads.blogspot.com
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