FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a device and method used to clean water from spas and pools without fungicidal or biocidal chemical additives. The invention also relates to treating skin conditions using the water obtained from this device and method.

BACKGROUND

Personal or public spas or pools are now commonly present in houses nowadays. Those installation require a minimum of maintenance to work efficiently and to keep the water clean and safe for people using them. The main problem encountered by owners is to be sure that the water is not polluted or comprises bacteria and/or fungus, very often transferred to the water from the skin of the users or contained in the water itself, or by polluted air interfacing with the water.

To solve this issue, regular use of aggressive biocidal and fungicidal chemicals to clean the water is mandatory, especially chlorine derivatives. However such chemicals are not neutral when added to the water and they can be aggressive to bodily tissues and skin. A good example is for instance a burning sensation in the eyes one can feel it when swimming in a public or private pool without glasses.

Chemicals added on the water circuitry of spas or pools require qualified personal to use them, and the chemicals should be handled with care.

Chemical have drawbacks, as they can generate allergies or irritate the skin as well.

For example in US20030141202 it is described a method and apparatus for purging and disinfecting water. The invention discloses the use of an alkaline electrolyte solution that is electrolyzed by a diaphragm-less electrolyzer to provide electrolytic water as purging and disinfecting water. The alkaline electrolyte solution is a mixture of at least one alkaline electrolyte selected from caustic sodium carbonate, caustic potassium carbonate, phosphorous sodium carbonate and sodium hypochlorite, and at least one neutral salt selected from sodium chloride, potassium chloride, sodium bromide and potassium bromide.

The purging and disinfecting water is added to a water circulatory system. The result is that contaminants and noxious chemicals in the circulatory system are oxidation decomposed to thereby purge the circulating water, and noxious microorganisms such as germs, yeasts, fungi, and viruses, growing in the water circulatory system and causing degradation of water or development of slime are disinfected and thereby purged from the water circulatory system. The purging and disinfecting method can be carried out in a simple manner with minimum cost.

Despite the purging and disinfecting method can be carried easily with a minimum of cost, using caustic alkaline compounds is not necessarily safe.

In US2010351604 it is disclosed a method of sanitizing water contained in a spa, which comprises installing a chlorine generating cell including a diamond electrode in a filter compartment of the spa, employing a resin-filled calcium remover bag to reduce the hardness of the water, adding salt to the water; and operating the chlorine generating cell to generate chlorine and other sanitizing agents for sanitizing the water.

Although the method is efficient by using electrolysis it requires addition of salt to the water and a specific installation with a filter compartment which need a certain level of maintenance and specialist to install said device. Based on users testimonies accessible on Internet the use of additional chemicals is always needed to ensure water disinfection.

The drawbacks created by the use of chemicals and the maintenance of such systems, impel to find alternative systems or methods to clean the water used in spas or pools, with a minimum of maintenance need and do not require the use of chemicals which could be over the time harmful to people and do not then offer a real innovative performance.

At the same time, for the treatment of skin conditions, the regular use of chemicals in the form of cream or composition can be irritating over time, moreover regular use can generate resistances or habituations such as treatments with a cortisone base for eczemas. There is a real need to have supporting actions avoiding irritations, or restoring the skin, due to these standard methods. There is also a real need to have alternative methods or compositions that have a non-irritating profile, that make it possible to use as rarely as possible products that can generate resistances or habituations and that make it possible to treat these inflammatory diseases of the skin that are often disabling or trying for the health of patients.

One of the goals of the invention is therefore to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages and to meet the aforementioned needs by providing electrolysed water for use in the treatment of inflammatory diseases of the skin.

In a similar way, although a large therapeutic arsenal exists to care for wounds and to cicatrise them effectively, using chemicals or biological factors is never without risk, as resistance to a composition can set in over the long term. Thus, there is a real need to be able to have new compositions or compounds, making it possible to effectively cicatrise wounds without systematically resorting to complex chemical compounds or biological factors that can sometimes but not always induce rejections or secondary effects that limit or affect the wound healing process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, a water cleaning device may include boron-doped diamond electrodes coated on a silicon substrate. This water cleaning device may be used for preparing an electrolyzed water for use in the treatment of inflammatory diseases of the skin, in particular the treatment of eczema or atopic dermatitis. It is also used for preparing an electrolyzed water for use in the treatment of wound healing of the skin.

In addition, the use of such electrodes may allow for intermittent, periodical, electrolysis of the water.

In one embodiment said water cleaning device may be easily adaptable to an existing cleaning system, such as that found in a spa or pool, such that it can be easily fitted into the filtration circuit.

Another aspect of embodiments of the invention is a method to clean bathing water in spas or pools without fungicidal or biocidal chemical additives, which may comprise the steps of:

i) Installing a cleaning device as previously defined in a water filtration circuit of a spa or pool;

ii) Circulating bathing water contained in said spa or pool in said filtration circuit by a filtration system and/or a pump such that said electrodes are in permanent contact with water in said spa or pool filtration circuit,

iii) Periodically connecting said electrodes to an electrical power source to periodically electrolyze the water circulated over said electrodes.

In various embodiments, the water may not need to contain any cleaning chemical additives with fungicidal or bacteriocidal effect or the like.

The embodiments may also relate to electrolysed bathing water obtained by the method described above. The embodiments may also relate to electrolysed bathing water according for use in the treatment of inflammatory diseases of the skin. Embodiments may also relate to electrolysed bathing water according to the invention for use in the treatment of wound healing of the skin.

