'Swimming in chlorinated water may cause bladder cancer'

A team of Spanish scientists found that cancer-causing chemicals called trihalomethanes (THM), which are created as a byproduct of chlorinating water, can be absorbed through the skin.

And people who regularly swim in chlorinated pools or take lots of showers or long baths are actually absorbing too much THM, putting themselves at risk of developing cancer, the Daily Mail reported.

For their study, the researchers examined 1,270 people and found those, who drank more bottled water to avoid the health risks posed by drinking tap water, actually lose the beneficial effects by swimming more and taking more showers.

"People with more money and more education may think that they're reducing their risk of exposure to water contaminants by drinking bottled water," said Dr Gemma Castaqo-Vinyals from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Castilla La Mancha, Spain.

"However, despite being apparently cleaner and taking more exercise, a result of taking more frequent and longer baths, and using swimming pools more often -- they are actually increasing their risk of THM exposure."

However Dr Castaqo-Vinyals added that the additional risk of developing bladder cancer through the water contaminants was "small". The new findings were reported in the online journal BioMed Central.