Chlorine: Pools and Allergy Risk

A number of newspapers today carried a Reuters story on the results of a study (published in the journal Pediatrics yesterday) that examined whether chlorine in swimming pools contributes to the development of asthma and respiratory allergies. The study was carried out by researchers at the Catholic University of Louvain (Brussels), and concludes that chlorine in pools has an additive effect on the development of asthma and allergies such as hay fever and allergic rhinitis. The study examined the health of 733 adolescents who swam in chlorinated pools with a control group of 114 adolescents who swam in pools sanitized with a concentration of copper and silver.