The Chlorine and Asthma Risk Factor

Last week I got an email tip about an article on the Asthma Mom website about a correlation between asthma and swimming in chlorinated pools.   According to the Asthma Mom reports of such evidence of a link between chlorinated pools and asthma stms from a Belgium study that indicated that chlorine mixes with bodily fluids that does cause an increase in asthma.  Maybe that is just another reason why people should shower before going into the pools.  But that is another topic for another day.  But as for the relation of chlorine and asthma a review of over 25 other scientific studies conclude that: “None of the individual point estimates demonstrated a significant increase in asthma prevalence among the exposed."  You can read the full article online at the AsthmaMom,

As for my own beliefs all I can say is that my sister had asthma as a child and the doctor recommended my parents that she take up swimmer.  On top of that my sister was a very fast swimmer growing up so I can't imagine that asthma has any link to chlorine as she excelled despite having been diagnosed with asthma before hand.  That is just my anecdotal evidence and not based on any medical research.  Plus if I was a parent I think I'd prefer to have my kid swimming than sitting around all day playing video games.  A slight chance of asthma beats a huge chance of obesity and heart disease any day in my book.