Refresh Milk Shower filter will be the most memorable gift, make the receiver remember you each time they bath.

Taking a shower is awesome, it makes you feel nice and clean, makes you sound like a great singer, and helps you make all of life’s decisions.     
Anonymous

Chlorine. Who knew? Many knew. I didn’t know. I might have guessed.

Earlier this summer I attended the opening of a moving exhibition at the Tate Britain in London. Called ‘Aftermath’, it chronicles in eight rooms, the years following the cessation of hostilities in World War I – see ‘A Hundred Years Ago’ right here in janiqueel. Young soldier-poets, like Rupert Brooke, wrote about the gas attacks. In fact, his ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ graphically describes the effects of chlorine:

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

It gets worse. Readily accessed on the Net, the poem may put a stop to your dreams of participating in trench combat – especially combat involving chlorine gas. It should.

As you may have wondered more than once while reading janiqueel.com articles, ‘What on earth is she on about this time?’ I’m talking chlorine, in case you haven’t guessed. One asks, ‘Where might I encounter chlorine outside of the W.W.I battlefields of Ypres, Arras, Amiens, Verdun?’ IN YOUR SHOWER! I shout.

OK, I’m being a bit alarmist. I admit it. War poets (at least those who survived their various wars) will not memorialise your showers, nor should they. But now that I have your attention, I hope, let’s be honest about the creeping dangers of chlorine in the water you so joyfully pour all over your body. Without unduly causing anxiety, here are a few of the harmful effects of chlorine in our everyday lives:

• It presents an increased risk of cancer;

• It can be harmful for children’s health;

• It can cause cell damage;

• It increases the risk of asthma;

• It can result in or accentuate heart problems;

• It can cause bad taste or odors.

Why is there chlorine in our water? ‘Chlorine has long been used to disinfect our drinking water because it controls the growth of such unwelcome bacteria as E Coli and Giardia…Many animals, including humans need chlorine. But there is a limit to what we can physically tolerate.’ (c.f. Bioray – the Global Healing Center). It can also be absorbed through the skin while showering, for example.

There is an answer – a shower filter. Thankfully, chlorine is quite easily eliminated from household water. Refresh Wellness, a Singapore company, offers a filter at a reasonable cost, that is easily fitted to shower heads. Shower happily again. Make it a part of your healthy lifestyle. Given the importance of showering to most of us, taking a step to making it as conducive to good health as possible is a step in the right direction.

It can be also be attached to a sink tap, although perhaps not as convenient as unscrewing the shower head and fitting the filter between it and the water hose. Here, as in so many situations in life, a plumber’s advice can be awfully nice.

Refresh Wellness says, ‘Our shower filter neutralizes up to 99.9% of residual chlorine, metals and other harmful substances. Vitamin C improves water acidity level which helps in defying skin aging, while milk contents whiten and eliminate dark spots. The abundance of antioxidants help to defend against skin irritation and hair loss while rejuvenating your skin and hair. Pamper yourself now with our aromatherapy fragrance that relieves tension and stress during your shower.’

Put another way, the Refresh Wellness filter helps:

• Delay skin aging;

• Prevent hair loss;

• Reduce skin irritation;

• Regenerate collagen layer;

• Relieve acne and eczema problems

• Whiten and eliminate dark spots and freckles.

In addition to promoting good health for most users the Refresh Wellness filter is especially salubrious for babies with sensitive skin, the elderly with aging skin, teenagers who want to improve eczema and acne conditions, and working adults who want to delay skin aging and improve hair loss conditions. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that covers most of us, right?

Product choice is simple enough;

• Refresh Milk Shower filter (Lavender)

• Refresh Milk Shower filter (Lemon)

• Refresh Shower filter (Unscented).

The first two involve vitamin C and the pleasing aromas of either lemon or lavender. Given my active lifestyle and my home in the tropics, I have been known to take more than one shower a day. How many? Ain’t sayin’!

Although it may seem a tad obsessive, taking the filter along on trips is not out of the question. Hotel and guest house shower heads are usually as accessible as the ones at home, but do check out the situation before plumbing too deeply the peculiarities of your rented bathroom. Things can go wrong – just sayin’.

Of our everyday experiences, few (IMHO) hold the simple joy of water sluicing across my skin. I might have been better off not knowing the harms of chlorine in water, but that die has been cast. Now that I know, it seems the Refresh Wellness Filter is the healthful complement to my daily (or more) ablutions.