6 Grossest Things Lurking in Your Pool
By Paige Fowler, Men's Health
Unless you're meticulous about maintenance, having a pool can quickly take you from the coolest guy on the block to public enemy number one.
"For the last 100 years we've been using chlorine to kill germs," says Michelle Hlavsa, R.N., M.P.H., an epidemiologist in the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Disease at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Maintaining the right chlorine levels is important to do not just before you go in the pool, but at all times." That's because diseases such as norovirus, E. coli, and salmonella can survive for several minutes before chlorine wipes them out.
So a swimmer who unknowingly brings a bug into a pool can sicken another person while you're still measuring the chemicals. Worse, several germs are chlorine-resistant, and others can thrive when levels are slightly too low. As you officially open your pool for business this month, here are four reasons to become extra vigilant about keeping it clean through summer--even if it means checking and measuring before you head to work in the morning.
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URINE CHEMICALS
Do you routinely emerge with red eyes after a dip? Prepare to be grossed out. Chlorine doesn't actually cause the irritation--it's due to chemicals that form when chlorine combines with the stuff other swimmers bring into the water, such as urine, germs, sweat, and makeup. As the concentration of those chemicals, called chloramines, increases, they move into the surrounding air and can cause irritation.
A recent Purdue University study found that peeing in the pool isn't the harmless act many assume it to be. Uric acid combines with chlorine to form byproducts called cyanogen chloride and trichloramine, toxic compounds that can affect the lungs, heart, and central nervous system. If you own your own watering hole, the best way to prevent chloramines is by encouraging swimmers to shower before taking a dip and enforcing a No Peeing Policy--that goes for you, too. And if you're building a pool, put a bathroom nearby.
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FECAL PARTICLES
Cryptosporidium is a germ that causes explosive watery diarrhea, and it's responsible for about 42 percent of contaminated pool incidents. One reason: It's extremely chlorine-tolerant and can survive up to 10 days in a pool at levels that would kill most other bacteria. "If a swimmer has a bowel movement in the pool, he can release hundreds of millions of crypto," Hlavsa says. Another swimmer may contract it by--gulp--swallowing a mouthful of infected water. "Because it's most often in watery diarrhea, you may not even know someone had an accident right away," Hlavsa adds. So whether you I.D. a floater or swimmers get sick, the only way to treat it is with hyper-chlorination--basically dumping about 20 times the normal amount of chlorine into the pool. But don't try this at home: "If something like this were to happen, have a pool service company take care of it because it's a complicated procedure and needs to be done correctly," Hlavsa says.
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NASTY BACTERIA
Surely a hot tub is hot enough to destroy any illness-causing bacteria, right? Nope--quite the opposite, in fact. Remember, bacteria love warm, wet environments. One bug in particular, legionella, adores water so much it actually has a way of protecting itself from chlorine, Hlavsa says. And it's one of the most frequent causes of waterborne disease. At worst, the germ can cause a type of severe pneumonia called Legionnaires' disease with flu-like symptoms, shortness of breath, chest pain, and confusion. The best way to prevent it is to check the chlorine levels of your hot tub at least once a day--even if you don't plan on getting into it any time soon.
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RASH-CAUSING GERMS
Found in both pools and hot tubs, pseudomonas are germs that are notorious for causing two major issues: hot tub rash and swimmer's ear. "If you sit in contaminated water long enough, you get a rash in the shape of your bathing suit because the bathing suit holds the germs onto your skin," Hlavsa says. It hides out in the slime along the sides of your hot tub, so be sure to clean and de-grime it regularly. Get in the habit of removing your swimsuit and showering with soap as soon as you get out, and wash your suit between uses.
Pseudomonas can lead to swimmer's ear if the contaminated water stays in contact with your ear canal long enough, so dry your ears after swimming. If you feel some water trapped, apply a few drops of an alcohol-based ear product into your ear to help clear it out. To keep the germ from growing in the first place, use test strips to check pools and hot tubs for adequate chlorine and pH levels. The CDC recommends 1 to 3 parts per million (ppm) of chlorine for pools and 2 to 5 ppm for hot tubs. The water pH should be maintained at 7.2 to 7.8.
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