What Is In the Pool Water?


Chlorine kills these bacteria in about a minute if the pool has at least 1 part per million of chlorine in it and the pool water is at a pH of 7.5 and at 77oF (25oC). Using the pool conditions mentioned above it takes around 16 minutes to inactivate the Hepatitis A virus, 45 minutes to kill the parasite Giardia intestinalis and several days to kill the parasite Cryptosporidium parvum .

To protect youself and your family I encourage you to follow the Centers for Disease Control's six "PLEAs" when going to the public pool.

  1. Please don't swim when you have diarrhea...this is especially important for kids in diapers. You can spread the germs into the water and make other people sick.
  2. Please don't swallow the pool water. In fact, try your best to avoid even having water get in your mouth.
  3. Please practice good hygiene. Take a shower before swimming and wash your hands after using the toilets or changing diapers. Germs on your body end up in the water.
  4. Please take your kids on bathroom breaks or check diapers often. Waiting to hear "I have to go" may mean that it's too late.
  5. Please change diapers in a bathroom and not at poolside. Germs can spread to surfaces and objects in and around the pool and spread illness.
  6. Please wash your child thoroughly (especially the rear end) with soap and water before swimming. We all have invisible amounts of fecal matter on our bottoms that end up in the pool.

With these "PLEAs" in mind you can have a safer swimming experience. One thing I don't want to do is scare you all away from the public pool this summer. The last report on water-borne illnesses in 2000 only recorded two public (municipal) pool associated diarrheas. It is relatively uncommon to get sick from swimming in a public pool with chlorinated water. However, with the PLEAs above it could be even rarer.

Here is a place to get more information on recreational water illnesses:

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyswimming/general_pub.htm

Take Care and Think Microbiologically! For more microbiology articles go to Suite101:Microbiology.

 

The copyright of the article What Is In the Pool Water? in Microbiology is owned by Neal Rolfe Chamberlain. Permission to republish What Is In the Pool Water? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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