Some pools may be closing but many indoor swimming pools, waterparks and spas stay open.

Date:   12/11/2006 1:20:01 PM ( 18 y ago)

Swimming, one of the most popular activities in the country, is a fun, active, and healthy way to spend leisure time. Every year, millions of people visit “recreational water” sites, such as swimming pools, water parks, hot tubs, lakes, rivers, or the ocean.

Over the past century, the use of modern disinfection systems in pools and environmental improvements in our lakes, rivers, and oceans has improved the quality of recreational water. Despite this, there has been an increase over the past decade in the number of outbreaks of illness associated with swimming.


What are recreational water illnesses (RWIs)?

RWIs are illnesses that are spread by swallowing, breathing, or having contact with contaminated water from swimming pools, spas, lakes, rivers, or oceans. Recreational water illnesses can cause a wide variety of symptoms, including gastrointestinal, skin, ear, respiratory, eye, neurologic and wound infections. The most commonly reported RWI is diarrhea. Diarrheal illnesses can be caused by germs such as Crypto, short for Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Shigella, Norovirus, and E. coli O157:H7.

How are RWIs spread?

Keep in mind that you share the water with everyone else in the pool, lake, or ocean.

Diarrheal Illnesses
If swimmers are ill with diarrhea, the germs that they carry can contaminate the water if they have an "accident" in the pool. On average, people have about 0.14 grams of feces on their bottoms which, when rinsed off, can contaminate recreational water. When people are ill with diarrhea, their stool can contain millions of germs. Therefore, swimming when ill with diarrhea can easily contaminate large pools or waterparks. In addition, lakes, rivers, and the ocean can be contaminated by sewage spills, animal waste, and water runoff following rainfall. Some common germs can also live for long periods of time in salt water.

So, if someone swallows water that has been contaminated with feces, he/she may become sick. Many of these diarrhea-causing germs do not have to be swallowed in large amounts to cause illness.

Other RWIs
Many other RWIs (skin, ear, eye, respiratory, neurologic, and wound infections) are caused by germs that live naturally in the environment (water, soil). In the pool or hot tub, if disinfectant is not maintained at the appropriate levels, these germs can increase to the point where they can cause illness when swimmers breathe or have contact with water containing these germs.

Why doesn't chlorine kill these RWI germs?

Chlorine in swimming pools does kill the germs that may make people sick, but it takes time. Chlorine in properly disinfected pools kills most germs that can cause RWIs in less than an hour. Chlorine takes longer to kill some germs such as Crypto (short for Cryptosporidium), which can survive for days in even a properly disinfected pool. This means that without your help, recreational water illnesses can be spread even in well-maintained pools.

Healthy swimming behaviors are needed to protect you and your family from RWIs and will help stop germs from getting in the pool.









 

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