Safer Sun and Chlorine Exposure Protocol for Summer

Safer Sun and Chlorine Exposure Protocol for Summer

With summer in full swing, my kids have been in the pool more days than not. We live in Texas, after all, and it's really hard to be outside for any length of time in summer without being in water. Between swim lessons, birthday pool party celebrations and spending time with friends, I want to make sure they get to have fun AND that I can help to offset the toxicity of chlorine as best as we can. I get asked about what we do for chlorine exposure, as well as for sun protection and bug spray constantly, so I thought I'd write it all down with the exact products that we use in our household. 

What chlorine actually does to our bodies

Pool chlorine reacts with sweat, oils, and other organic material on the body to form chloramines, which is what gives pools that sharp chemical smell. Chloramines are the part that dries out skin and hair, strips the natural protective oils, and can leave skin itchy, flaky, and more reactive. Showering with plain water and soap gets rid of dirt and surface residue, but it does not fully neutralize what has bonded to hair and skin, which is why I do not stop at a regular rinse after a pool day.

There is also a bigger picture here beyond dry skin. The same reaction that creates chloramines in the water also creates trichloramine gas, which builds up in the air above indoor pools. Airborne trichloramine is being looked at as a possible driver of childhood asthma, something in the field that is actually called the pool chlorine hypothesis.

A Swedish case control study following kids over time found that early life exposure to indoor chlorinated pools was associated with a meaningfully higher risk of preschool asthma onset, and a more recent nationally representative study in US adolescents found that higher blood levels of trihalomethanes, one of the main disinfection byproducts formed in chlorinated water, were associated with a higher likelihood of asthma. Our current swim lessons are indoors, but I would otherwise not mess with an indoor pool for this reason.

Before you even get in, rinse

It sounds backwards, rinsing off before you get in the water that is about to get you wet anyway, but it actually matters. But hair and skin that are already saturated with clean water absorb less pool water and, by extension, less chlorine, since there is less room left to soak up.

I do not bother with a pre-swim oil barrier like coconut oil, some recommend it and it does work in theory, but in practice it is messy, it can bother pool staff since oils affect water chemistry and filtration, and a quick rinse under the shower before you swim gets you most of the same benefit without the mess.

If your kids already have very dry or reactive skin, a thin layer of a plain moisturizer before swimming is a reasonable middle ground. That said, I do put a barrier cream such as a tallow based balm on my son Noah who is my most eczema prone just in the areas he typically gets eczema, we use this one: Primally Pure Baby Balm.

The after pool vitamin C spray

Vitamin C, in the form of ascorbic acid or sodium ascorbate, chemically neutralizes chlorine and chloramines on contact. It converts them into compounds the body already knows how to handle, and it is actually the same principle water treatment facilities use to dechlorinate water before it is released into rivers and lakes. 

This is a simple after pool spray I use on my kids all summer long: 

Distilled or filtered water, 2 cups
Ascorbic acid powder, 2 teaspoon
Essential oil, 2 to 3 drops, optional

Note you can make a smaller volume, just use the ratio of 1 tsp Ascorbic Acid to 1 cup water.

Combine the water and ascorbic acid powder in an amber glass spray bottle and shake until fully dissolved. Add the essential oil if using and shake again. Spray generously over skin and hair as soon as you are out of the pool, massaging it in, then let it sit for a few minutes before rinsing in the shower.

A note on the essential oil, skip citrus oils here. Cold pressed citrus oils like lemon, lime, and bergamot are phototoxic, meaning they increase skin's sensitivity to UV light and can cause burns or dark patches when applied before more sun exposure. Lavender or a calming blend is a better choice for this one, and always patch test on a small area first, especially for kids.

This solution does not keep well. The ascorbic acid oxidizes over time and you will see the water start to turn yellow or brown, which means it has lost its potency, so I make a fresh small batch every few days rather than a big jug that sits around all summer.

You can also put a little ascorbic acid right into the bathtub after the pool to get a similar effect. 

This is the Ascorbic Acid powder I use: 

Washing it all out, Babo Botanicals swim and sport shampoo and conditioner

After the spray and rinse, I follow with an actual clarifying wash, since chlorine residue can still sit on the hair shaft even after a quick rinse. I use the Babo Botanicals Swim and Sport shampoo and wash followed by their conditioner. It is formulated specifically to help clear chlorine, salt, and mineral buildup while restoring moisture with aloe, shea butter, and jojoba oil, and it is free of sulfates, parabens, and synthetic dyes, which matters to me for something we are using multiple times a week all summer on my kids' skin and scalp.

Supporting the body from the inside, glutathione and vitamin C

Everything above addresses chlorine from the outside, but I also think about it from the inside, since chlorine byproducts create oxidative stress in the body, not just on skin and hair. Glutathione is the body's main internal antioxidant, and it is what your cells use to neutralize the free radicals generated when chlorine and its byproducts interact with tissue. Lab research on the disinfection byproducts found in chlorinated water has shown that depleting cellular glutathione makes cells more vulnerable to this kind of damage, and replenishing it helps protect against it, which is the same detox pathway your liver relies on more broadly.

Vitamin C works alongside it, both as an antioxidant in its own right and as a nutrient the body uses to help regenerate glutathione once it has been used up.  You can definitely use the same vitamin C you use topically in the after pool spray, but taking it internally on heavy pool days gives your system additional support from the inside while the topical spray is neutralizing what is sitting directly on your skin. 

If you are at the pool once in a while, your body's own antioxidant system can generally keep up. If you or your kids are in chlorinated water several times a week all summer, that is when I would consider adding this in.

How I do this in my household: 

Perfect Supplements Acerola Cherry Capsules (or powder)

I use this whole food form of vitamin C and simply open a capsule into a bite of food such as yogurt, applesauce or honey for my kids. Use code BECKIYOO for savings on Perfect Supplements. 

Liposomal Glutathione 1-2 pumps on swim days

You can do this straight into the mouth or into the same bite of food with the acerola cherry, the tartness will help mask the flavor (glutathione itself doesn't taste great). 

Our everyday sunscreen, Primally Pure

Before we even get to sunscreen, the actual hierarchy in our house is shade, then clothing, then sunscreen for whatever skin is still exposed. This is not just a personal preference, it is genuinely the more effective order of operations. A dedicated UPF rated rash guard or swim shirt blocks somewhere around 98 percent of UV rays and does not wear off, sweat off, or need reapplying every couple of hours the way sunscreen does.

Our actual rule is, if we are going to be out in direct sun for under an hour, shade, hats, and UPF clothing on the exposed areas usually covers it. Past that hour mark, sunscreen goes on everyone. I am all for gradual and safe sun exposure, but I'm also not trying to get skin cancer or age my skin prematurely (I'm Irish, we don't mix well with the sun!).

For sunscreen itself, I rely entirely on mineral formulas, and Primally Pure is what I reach for daily. The active ingredient is non-nano zinc oxide, one of only two mineral ingredients the FDA currently recognizes as safe and effective for sunscreen use, the other being titanium dioxide. Zinc oxide sits on top of the skin and reflects UV rays rather than being absorbed into it, which is the main reason I prefer it over chemical filters like oxybenzone and avobenzone.

A 2019 FDA funded study published in JAMA had healthy volunteers use commercially available chemical sunscreens under normal, heavy use conditions, and found that all of the active ingredients tested, including oxybenzone, were absorbed into the bloodstream at levels well above the threshold the FDA uses to decide whether further safety testing is needed. The researchers were careful to say this does not mean people should stop using sunscreen, and we still do not fully know what that level of systemic absorption means for long term health, but it is exactly the kind of open question that makes me lean toward a mineral option where the safety profile is already established.

My daily rotation is the Primally Pure Sun Cream SPF 30 for body, their Sun Serum tinted SPF for my face since it doubles as a light, tinted moisturizer, and the Lip and Cheek Tint SPF for a bit of color with sun protection built in. All three are built on a tallow and mango butter base with zinc oxide as the only active ingredient, so there is no long list of preservatives, synthetic fragrance, or seed oils to think about. For any Primally Pure purchase, you can use the code BECKIYOO for savings.

I use this on my kids as well and feel good about it on my baby, but I will sometimes opt for a spray if we are at the beach or pool all day just for ease of application. 

Babo Botanicals Mineral Sunscreen Spray uses non nano zinc oxide and titanium dioxide together as the actives. It is EWG Verified, MADE SAFE certified, and Babo is a B Corp, so the company itself checks out along with the formula. It is free of oxybenzone, octinoxate, parabens, and synthetic fragrance.

One honest caveat on sprays generally, EWG itself does not include sprays on its top recommended kids list because of inhalation risk, the fine mineral particles you are spraying can be breathed in during application. Sticks or lotions bypass this issue, but if the spray is what actually gets sunscreen on your kids consistently, this is one of the cleanest versions of that convenience. Simply having them hold their breath when spraying bypasses this concern.

For baby, I also sometimes will use Badger's Baby Mineral Sunscreen Cream with Chamomile and Calendula SPF 40. This is about as minimal as sunscreen ingredient lists get, uncoated zinc oxide 22.5 percent as the only active, and just seven ingredients total in the base, organic sunflower oil, beeswax, jojoba oil, sunflower vitamin E, calendula flower extract, chamomile flower oil, and seabuckthorn fruit extract. No preservatives, no silicones, no fillers of any kind, it's genuinely one of the shortest ingredient lists on the market and EWG rates it at the top of their scale. 

A note on bug spray