Water Filtersby ApplicationBath Tub Filters < Previous Product Next Product > VitaBath Vitamin C Tablets for Chlorine and Chloramines 100 TabletsThis post has been updated for 2011. I recently wrote about Filtering Your Drinking Water Very Efficiently, but let us turn now to your shower water. When we shower, we absorb the substances dissolved in water through our skin quite readily. For example, 60% of the chlorine absorbed daily comes from showering in chlorinated water. The chlorine is absorbed directly from the water and from the chlorine gas released into the air. Ideally, we would filter out all the undesirable chemicals from our shower water. However, unless you have a whole house water filter, this is not possible. This is because filtering water at the showerhead is problematic — the water moves fast, making filtering difficult, and the water is typically hot, which is also undesirable for filtering. So basically, if you are filtering your shower water at the showerhead, you can only really hope to remove chlorine from the water.
Shower filter manufacturers who claim otherwise should probably be viewed with skepticism. But chlorine is certainly one of the first you’d want to remove from your shower water. Anyone who has swam in a swimming pool with high levels of chlorine, can tell you that it dries and irritates the skin, makes hair brittle, and causes eyes to become red and itchy. Also, inhaling the toxic steam can aggravate the sinuses and lungs. But it’s not only chlorine that’s in municipal water these days, increasingly cities are adding chloramines to the water. Chloramines are more stable compound, containing chlorine and ammonia. Unfortunately chloramines are more difficult to remove from water. However, there are filters out there that will remove 100% of chlorine and chloramines from your shower water: vitamin C-based shower filters. These filters have a simple method of operation: the shower water passes through the block of vitamin C, and the chlorine is converted to inorganic chlorides.
Vitamin C shower filters are made by a few companies, for example VitaC Shower, Keosan and Sonaki. You can also get filters for your bath too. Another common type of shower filter is the KDF filter, which uses copper and zinc for filtration. KDF filters remove free chlorine by reversing the electrochemical process that originally separated the chlorine from sodium in a brine solution. KDF filters, however, have a important limitation: they do not remove chloramines. Also, KDF shower filters are affected by water pressure. When the water pressure is not high enough, water can’t pass through the KDF powders. KDF filters also tend to get clogged very quickly. I’ve seen some buyers on Amazon reporting that their KDF filters get clogged after a couple months. Some shower filters use activated carbon. This is effective in reducing certain organic chemicals and chlorine in cold water. Chlorine is attracted to and held (absorbed) into the surface of the carbon particles. However, the efficiency of absorption is quickly nullified when the water becomes warm.
The lifetime of an activated carbon shower filter is very short. An activated carbon shower filter gets clogged very quickly by the dirt it is meant to stop. So I recommend a vitamin C shower filter like the VitaC Shower brand filter. I’ve used these filters for years, they remove 100% of the chlorine and chloramines from your shower water, and will last about 6 months before they need replacement.A series of five experiments were conducted to explore suitable conditions for storing of goldfish embryos in a chilled state. The factors studied were embryo stage, storage temperature, physiological saline solutions and goldfish artificial coelomic fluid (GFACF) medium, antibiotics (penicillin and streptomycin), antioxidants (vitamin E, vitamin C), buffer (Hepes, Tris) and BSA (bovine serum albumin). First, goldfish embryos at eight developmental stages were incubated in aerated and dechlorinated tap water at 0°C for 24 h. Result shows that early developmental stages were most sensitive to chilling.
Heartbeat-stage goldfish embryos were chilled at 0, 4 or 8°C for up to 72 h in water, and chilled storage was possible only for up to 18, 24 and 48 h at 0, 4 and 8°C, respectively, without a decrease in viability. Chilling of goldfish embryos at 8°C in GFACF medium and Dettlaff's solution instead of water and other physiological saline solutions prolonged their viability (p < 0.01). Nevertheless, viability of chilled embryos in GFACF medium was slightly, but non-significantly, higher than in Dettlaff's solution. Supplementation of the GFACF medium with antibiotics, Hepes or BSA increased the viability of chilled embryos, but the tested vitamin E analogue Trolox, vitamin C or Tris concentration had no effect on embryo viability. The outcome of this series of experiments shows that heartbeat-stage goldfish embryos could be chilled for 60 h in GFACF supplemented with 25 mm Hepes, 100 U/ml penicillin, 10 μg/l streptomycin and 1 g/l BSA in such a way that embryonic development does not proceed, and viability is not lost.
Continue reading full articleRinsing with Vitamin C after swimming is the single best thing that a swimmer can do for maintaining healthy hair and skin. Vitamin C neutralizes the lingering chlorine film that other shower products leave behind. Swimming pools are usually sanitized with chlorine or bromine. Those chemicals stick to the swimmers' hair and skin. They do not simply wash away with water, soap, shampoo, or conditioner. Rather, the chlorine lingers, which is why we call it "lingering chlorine." Thankfully, vitamin C immediately neutralizes the lingering chlorine, restoring hair and skin back to it's natural state— not covered in a layer of pool chemicals. Here is a video showing the difference between (a) a vitamin C rinse and (b) washing with water or shampoo: SwimSpray provides a new vitamin C technology, which completely eliminates chlorine from a swimmers' hair and skin after swimming. SwimSpray provides vitamin C at a high concentration while maintaining a gentle pH.
Accordingly, SwimSpray's vitamin C treatment is far more effective than any other product on the market. Vitamin C can be found in a variety of different forms. Since SwimSpray entered the marketplace, we have seen many DIY (do it yourself) remedies. Many DIY remedies suggest simply adding vitamin C to water. But adding vitamin C (ascorbic acid) to water would result in a solution with a pH of 1.97, which is extremely acidic. It would be more acidic than lemon juice. Spraying sensitive skin with a solution having this pH would burn or sting. Spraying hair with an acidic solution would damage the hair and strip away oils. Additionally, simply mixing ascorbic acid with water would result in a solution that degrades rapidly. The solution would turn brown. While degrading, the solution would release carbon dioxide. If left in a sealed bottle, it could explode. SwimSpray's vitamin C formula provides a concentrated solution of vitamin C at a pH that is gentle on hair and skin.
SwimSpray's pH is about the same as Johnson's baby shampoo, which makes it great for children because it does not sting eyes or irritated skin. SwimSpray is not a soap. It does not lather. It does not have fragrances. Accordingly, we recommend using SwimSpray together with shampoo or body wash. See How to Use SwimSpray. By spraying SwimSpray on hair and skin just before shampooing, swimmers can add chlorine busting power to their favorite shower products. Adding vitamin C to shampoo does not work for a variety of reasons. First, vitamin C will not easily dissolve in shampoo. Accordingly, the user will not be able to add an effective amount of the active ingredient. Second, vitamin C can react with some of the ingredients in shampoos. Those side-reactions will cause the vitamin C to degrade (making it less effective). Those side-reactions will also turn the shampoo a brown color. For at least these two reasons, the user should apply the vitamin C spray first, then lather up with shampoo or conditioner.