Say Goodbye to Post-Pool Chlorine Toxins — Ascorbate Vitamin C to the Rescue
’Tis the season for long summer days spent in the pool. But sometimes, this can mean a dreadful amount of time soaking your body in chlorinated water. Fortunately, we can learn some lessons from professional swimmers on how to get rid of the unwelcome side effects of chlorine.
Vitamin C Is the Key Ingredient in Commercial Chlorine Removers
If you aren’t an avid swimmer, you’ve probably not heard of chlorine-remover sprays (I know I hadn’t). Chlorine-remover sprays can be used on skin and hair after swimming to help remove residual chlorine and decrease its potential to dry out your skin and damage your hair. Interestingly, the nutrient we know and love, vitamin C, is a key active ingredient in these chlorine-removal products. The US Masters Swimming group shows how you can make your own chlorine remover at home, using vitamin C!
Make Your Own Chlorine-Remover Spray with Vitamin C
The basic formula for a DIY chlorine-remover spray is about 1 teaspoon of vitamin C powder or crystals in 1 pint of water. Make sure to grab a dark-colored spray bottle to protect the vitamin C from oxidizing. Try this spray on your swimsuits, hair, and skin this summer!
If you don’t feel like mixing a whole bottle, adding some extra vitamin C to your shampoo or body wash can do the trick.
What about the Chlorine in My Bath and Drinking Water?
On a large scale, water engineers are researching the potential to neutralize chlorinated water in storage tanks with ascorbic acid OR ascorbate. Because the pH of water is sensitive (especially when being discharged to the public or to lakes and streams), they note the preference to use ascorbate as it does not raise the acidity (one of the reasons we LOVE ascorbate powder).
Another study looking at water disinfection tablets found that adding vitamin C greatly improved the taste of the newly potable water!
If you are concerned about the chlorine content of tap water, you will be happy to learn that adding some of your favorite nutrient, vitamin C, to the tap water may help detoxify your morning glass of water.
Organic Farmers Love Vitamin C
Since most of us use tap water to water our gardens and plants, we often don’t think about what extra compounds we may be passing on to our flowers and vegetables. While some studies claim that the small amounts of chlorine in our tap water don’t affect plant growth, others show that it does have an effect on soil microbes. However, organic farmers don’t want to take the chance of harming their plants in any way, including killing soil microbes. So, many gardeners are taking methods from water engineers and using vitamin C to help neutralize the water they are using in their garden.
According to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, just 1,000 mg of vitamin C can neutralize the chlorine in a TUB of bath water!
Remember, it is important to use the ascorbate form of vitamin C so you don’t lower the pH of your water significantly.
Vitamin C Wears Many Hats
In addition to the many, many benefits of vitamin C, including its role as a potent antioxidant, it can also help purify our water! If you needed another reason to add a teaspoon of ascorbate to your water today, now you have one. Nature works in mysterious ways. It’s time to grab a spray bottle of home-made chlorine remover and hit the pool!
