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Chlorine is a potent irritant for anyone who has eczema - which means that millions of Britons who suffer from this common skin condition are prevented from enjoying a pleasurable, healthy - and often very cheap - leisure activity, The Daily Mail reported.

What's more, it's actually potentially harmful - some studies have found that the chlorine used in pools can increase a youngster's risk of asthma up to six-fold. Rates of hay fever and other types of allergies are also said to be increased.

Meanwhile scientists believe that commonly-found airborne chemicals, such as chlorine from pools and compounds found in cleaning products, could be behind the five-fold increase in inherited allergies during the past 50 years: exposure to these chemicals may be altering an unborn child's immune system, leaving them more sensitive to conditions such as eczema, asthma and hay fever.

Chemicals such as chlorine disinfect pools but, as a by-product of the process, they also combine with the detritus of swimmers - dead skin, bacteria, urine, sweat and body oils - to form substances known as chloramines.