9 replies to this topic

[Ghostrider]

I live in Portland, Oregon and the city water here seems pretty good, good enough to drink anyway. Do I need a filtered showerhead?

[brokenportal]

Ive been wondering the same thing. I hear that hot showers allow all the stuff in your water to absorb through your skin much more easily. After I heard that was the first time I started to consider that maybe the stuff in my water shouldnt be going my skin. I dont know much about it though.

[mustardseed41]

I use one of these shower filters.

http://www.vitashowercorp.com

[Ghostrider]

Ive been wondering the same thing. I hear that hot showers allow all the stuff in your water to absorb through your skin much more easily. After I heard that was the first time I started to consider that maybe the stuff in my water shouldnt be going my skin. I dont know much about it though.

Maybe I have become used to it or maybe I have lost part of my sense of smell, but I do not notice any chlorine odor when I shower. In fact, the city water here is pretty good. I feel like I don't need a filtered showerhead, but if it helps my health, I would invest in one. But it seems like it would be foolish to drink city water (filtered half the time) but filter my bath water.

[niner]

Ive been wondering the same thing. I hear that hot showers allow all the stuff in your water to absorb through your skin much more easily. After I heard that was the first time I started to consider that maybe the stuff in my water shouldnt be going my skin. I dont know much about it though.

I doubt that anything significant is getting absorbed transdermally. I thought the problem was from volatile components outgassing into the air and getting into your lungs while showering. If this is really a problem, and I'm not sure it is, then swimming in a chlorinated pool must be near lethal.

[kismet]

If you drink it this should be the least of your problems, no?

[Ben]

If you drink it this should be the least of your problems, no?

Not in terms of vaporised gas getting into your lungs.

[kismet]

Both times it's in your system. If it was somehow detrimental to the health of your skin/lungs I would not drink it to begin with.

[Ben]

Both times it's in your system. If it was somehow detrimental to the health of your skin/lungs I would not drink it to begin with.

gah.

[Skötkonung]

I also live in Portland and I use a filtered shower head.

Lowe's Hardware in Jantzen Beach has a small selection of shower head filters. This is the one that I currently use:
http://www.lowes.com...d...&lpage=none

You are right, Portland is known for having a decent water supply for a largish metropolitan, but I worry mostly about the chemicals and metals that accumulate in transit from the reservoir to my house. Some of those pipes are pretty old! I live in a recently renovated mid-80s apartment complex. I thought my water was fine until one day I decided to take the little screen off the bottom of my faucet. Out came brown goo and gravel. This was enough to finally convince me to filter my showers and drinking water.

Also, Portland has poor air quality due to the manufacturing near the waterfront and the coal power plant in the Columbia gorge. About a year ago, there was an article in Men's Health magazine which followed the story of a Portland athlete. For almost two decades, he would go on a daily run around the downtown area for an hour or so. Then in his 40s, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He had lived a healthy lifestyle, always exercising, eating healthy, and never smoking and rarely drinking. After a thorough investigation by an OHSU team, it turned out that all the smog, manufacturing fumes, and pollution from the nearby coal plant had caused harm to his lungs. Running had been forcing that pollution deeper into his lungs than usual. When it comes to our water supply, we have to remember that all this air pollution does settle in our nearby reservoirs, and that while it may not be as bad other large cities, we should take precautions and filter it out. Those trace pollutants may catch up with you eventually.