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It could be the chlorine; it's a chemical required by the EPA to be present in detectable levels in all tap water in this country.
Chlorine is another word for bleach.
There are other disinfectant chemicals very commonly used instead of elemental chlorine. Chloramine is one. The reaction and byproducts it forms in water are different. To find out which one is used in that area in FL or wherever you'd have to call the water utility. Chlorine can be neutralized by letting it offgass in an open container overnight. Chloramine can't. Why do I know? Because I have kept reptiles, amphibians, and aquarium fish for decades. They often require that tap water from a municipal source be treated to remove additives such as chloramines. If my local water is extremely high in minerals or has a low pH it may need buffering to be safe for them.
There are naturally occurring organics and minerals present in water that might also contribute to your skin reactions. Another problem is that they can vary by season (more or less dilute after heavy seasonal rainfall for example). High levels of mineral salts, iron, sulfur, even tannins. Many places in FL have water that's high in tannins which ironically are often used to soothe skin reactions. I've lived in places using deep well water (no chlorines or other treatment chemicals added) and had itchy hive-like skin reactions to higher mineral concentrations and it can vary depending on how much flow through from groundwater is occurring at the time. I can sometimes end up with hives just from heavy exercise and sweating.
The point some of us were trying to make is that you would have to analyze your water at the time you were having skin reactions and also your sensitivity to each ingredient that was present in the water to really determine whether chlorine, chloramine, fluoride, mineral salts, or organics were the triggers.
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-07-2017 at 03:21 PM..
It could be the chlorine; it's a chemical required by the EPA to be present in detectable levels in all tap water in this country.
Chlorine is another word for bleach.
There are other disinfectant chemicals very commonly used instead of elemental chlorine. Chloramine is one. The reaction and byproducts it forms in water are different. To find out which one is used in that area in FL or wherever you'd have to call the water utility. Chlorine can be neutralized by letting it offgass in an open container overnight. Chloramine can't. Why do I know? Because I have kept reptiles, amphibians, and aquarium fish for decades. They often require that tap water from a municipal source be treated to remove additives such as chloramines. If my local water is extremely high in minerals or has a low pH it may need buffering to be safe for them.
There are naturally occurring organics and minerals present in water that might also contribute to your skin reactions. Another problem is that they can vary by season (more or less dilute after heavy seasonal rainfall for example). High levels of mineral salts, iron, sulfur, even tannins. Many places in FL have water that's high in tannins which ironically are often used to soothe skin reactions. I've lived in places using deep well water (no chlorines or other treatment chemicals added) and had itchy hive-like skin reactions to higher mineral concentrations and it can vary depending on how much flow through from groundwater is occurring at the time. I can sometimes end up with hives just from heavy exercise and sweating.
The point some of us were trying to make is that you would have to analyze your water at the time you were having skin reactions and also your sensitivity to each ingredient that was present in the water to really determine whether chlorine, chloramine, fluoride, mineral salts, or organics were the triggers.
Chlorine. When we lived on LI, we had our own backyard pool. I went in it with my kids in addition to hosting and going to pool parties. Never had hives. My husband always tested the pool water, and yes, added chlorine to it. Of course, took showers after but the water there never had fluoride added to it.
Did not have our own pool in Florida. Public pools? As those Pharm commercials say, I didn't want to wear a swim suit in public when I had hives. "Look at me". "I don't have a contagious disease".
They flushed the water system with chlorine in Naples once a year in October. That was the worst when I even had hives on my eyelids. My kitchen smelled like an indoor pool. Perfectly safe for humans to drink they said. My husband would not drink that water. "I don't brew coffee with pool water". He had a friend who worked at the Water Authority and called him about it. The man said they get a lot of complaints but that his hands were tied. Drink bottled water during this time. We did but that wasn't a solution for me.
I went to an Urgent Care Center the first year. They gave me steroids which made me vomit. The second year during the flushing I went to a Dermatologist. She did a biopsy which ruled out Psoriasis and Lupus. Actopic Dermatitis. How are you going to put topical cordisone cream on your eyelids? Change your soaps and detergents. Did nothing.
Flight. We got a head's up from the Water Guy when flushing was going to done. I left town every October for seven years when they did it. Still had hives while living there, but never again to that extent.
Blame the entire year on added chlorine? Then why not when I actually did go in pools a lot. Well, back then I wasn't showering in not only fluoridated water, or a swimming pool. I think it a combination of both. Chlorine only made it worse.
Chlorine. When we lived on LI, we had our own backyard pool. I went in it with my kids in addition to hosting and going to pool parties. Never had hives. My husband always tested the pool water, and yes, added chlorine to it. Of course, took showers after but the water there never had fluoride added to it.
Did not have our own pool in Florida. Public pools? As those Pharm commercials say, I didn't want to wear a swim suit in public when I had hives. "Look at me". "I don't have a contagious disease".
They flushed the water system with chlorine in Naples once a year in October. That was the worst when I even had hives on my eyelids. My kitchen smelled like an indoor pool. Perfectly safe for humans to drink they said. My husband would not drink that water. "I don't brew coffee with pool water". He had a friend who worked at the Water Authority and called him about it. The man said they get a lot of complaints but that his hands were tied. Drink bottled water during this time. We did but that wasn't a solution for me.
I went to an Urgent Care Center the first year. They gave me steroids which made me vomit. The second year during the flushing I went to a Dermatologist. She did a biopsy which ruled out Psoriasis and Lupus. Actopic Dermatitis. How are you going to put topical cordisone cream on your eyelids? Change your soaps and detergents. Did nothing.
Flight. We got a head's up from the Water Guy when flushing was going to done. I left town every October for seven years when they did it. Still had hives while living there, but never again to that extent.
Blame the entire year on added chlorine? Then why not when I actually did go in pools a lot. Well, back then I wasn't showering in not only fluoridated water, or a swimming pool. I think it a combination of both. Chlorine only made it worse.
Tap water does not contain only chlorine and fluoride. There are many more chemicals in it than that.
Tap water does not contain only chlorine and fluoride. There are many more chemicals in it than that.
Yeah, like arsenic and cadmium and some others that escape me at the moment. Why these are needed, who the H knows. Maybe they are naturally occurring too.
Yeah, like arsenic and cadmium and some others that escape me at the moment. Why these are needed, who the H knows. Maybe they are naturally occurring too.
I you want only water, you would have to distill it.
Yeah, like arsenic and cadmium and some others that escape me at the moment. Why these are needed, who the H knows. Maybe they are naturally occurring too.
Both arsenic and cadmium are naturally-occurring elements. You can look them up on the periodic table https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table. Most, but not all known elements are naturally occurring including the dastardly fluorine and chlorine. They are chemically unique to themselves because of their atomic structures. Whether an element happens to end up being toxic depends on the concentration in a specific location. Too much oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, helium, any of them we usually consider pretty benign could be toxic if there's too much or too little.
An example: The remote AK town I lived in for 16 years (completely surrounded by pristine wilderness...no mining or heavy industry ever) has natural arsenic in the local limestone. Everyone there uses wells or rainfall cisterns. No soil is uniform, and the amount of rainfall at any given time can dilute or concentrate soil minerals that end up in wellwater. Some wellsites have a higher concentration than others simply because of the soil in that spot. Wells are routinely tested for it. Most wells including mine were fine and needed no filtration. Now some people may think I am a little odd, but its not due to arsenic in the well I drank from, washed in, or cleaned with for all those years.
OK, this time an example of a naturally occurring element being altered to the point of toxicity by human activity: Many soils in the central valley of CA (and other valley systems of the western US) naturally contain boron, arsenic, selenium and salts of these and other minerals. Prehistorically, these valleys held extensive lake and wetland complexes. The soils were basically lakebeds. After the Little Ice Age retreat the western US became drier and warmer, lakes evaporated, leaving higher concentrations of minerals behind. All naturally occurring events.
Human activity created the problems...the valley was settled and large scale agriculture began. Not enough rainfall to support all the demands so they started pumping aquifer water to flood irrigate crops. All that soil flushing and eventual evaporation of the runoff water raised the concentration of these natural soil minerals to the point they became toxic. Thousands of acres of soil too toxic to grow crops on. So, they kept flushing even more water through the fields to dilute the accumulated salts again. Problem was, all that contaminated water was diverted to evaporation ponds. When the water evaporated, it left behind even more highly concentrated salts. What started off as a natural element ended up a toxin. Ponds and mudflats there attracted waterbirds. They ended up being poisoned by the thousands, and other wildlife and people were now also at risk. Why do I know? I once had the job of hazing waterbirds away from these toxic ponds day after day, week after week, for months each winter during migration.
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-12-2017 at 05:22 PM..
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