Summer is a great time to enjoy the outdoors, and swimming is one of the most popular activities during the hot summer months. Not only can you beat the heat, but you can also exercise your cardiopulmonary function and body flexibility, and improve your body fat percentage. However, swimming pools, as public places, present a variety of health risks. If you don’t pay attention to hygiene, you may contract diseases while swimming. So, how can you enjoy swimming while reducing health risks?
Major health risks during swimming
Before we discuss how to reduce the health risks of swimming, it’s important to first understand the major health risks of swimming. Swimming pool water is the main potential threat.
Swimming pool water is in direct contact with the human body, so metabolites of the human body (especially urine and sweat) and cosmetics applied on the body will enter the pool water, providing an ideal environment for microbial reproduction. In addition, pool water may contain bacteria and viruses that cause diarrhea, pink eye, and respiratory illness, and these pathogens cannot be effectively removed by pool water treatment systems. Therefore, swimmers may suffer from pinkeye, sinusitis, otitis media, viral upper respiratory tract infections and other diseases after swimming in swimming pools with poor sanitary conditions. To ensure the health of swimmers, swimming pool water must be disinfected.
Common ways to disinfect swimming pool water
In order to maintain the hygiene and safety of swimming pool water, a variety of disinfection methods are often used. These methods include chlorination disinfection, ozone, chlorine dioxide, ultraviolet light and bromine products, among which chlorination disinfection is the most common method.
Chlorination disinfection uses chlorine gas or chloride to react with water to produce hypochlorous acid, which kills bacteria and viruses. Chlorination disinfection has a long history and was first used for the disinfection of drinking water. Chlorinated disinfectants include chlorine, calcium hypochlorite, sodium hypochlorite, sodium dichloroisocyanurate and trichloroisocyanuric acid. Among these disinfectants, trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA) is a common choice for swimming pool water disinfection. It has high stability, significant bactericidal effect, and less irritation to human skin and mucous membranes, so it is widely used.
Health Hazards in Swimming Facilities
During the actual use of swimming venues, the content of disinfectants is affected by many factors, including the sanitary management status of the venue, changes in the number of swimmers, and the temperature and water change rate of the pool water.
If the disinfectant content is too low, the pool water will not be effectively disinfected and microorganisms will easily breed. On the contrary, if the content is too high, it may irritate the skin and mucous membranes of the human body and cause skin allergies. Therefore, the importance of maintaining appropriate disinfectant concentrations in maintaining swimming pool water quality cannot be ignored.
Personal protection during swimming
In addition to disinfection measures for pool water, swimmers themselves also need to take some personal protective measures to reduce health risks:
- Wear a swimming cap, waterproof glasses, nose clip and earplugs to reduce irritation in the pool water.
- If you accidentally inhale pool water, rinse your mouth with clean water in time to avoid discomfort.
- After swimming, you should shower and bathe to wash away pool water and disinfection by-products from your body.
- Avoid spitting, urinating and other uncivilized behaviors in the swimming pool to maintain the hygiene and order of the venue.
Use a chlorine floater to ensure swimming pool water quality
To ensure the cleanliness and hygiene of your pool water, you may consider using a chlorine floater. A chlorine floater is a convenient swimming pool water treatment device that regularly releases an appropriate amount of chlorine disinfectant to help keep the water clean. This device is usually easy to use. Just place the chlorine floater in the swimming pool and it will automatically release chlorine to ensure that microorganisms in the water are effectively controlled.
The importance of chlorine floater
Purchasing a high-quality chlorine floater allows you to enjoy swimming with greater confidence, as it keeps the pool water clean and reduces health risks. In addition, the chlorine floater can also reduce the frequency of manually adding chlorine disinfectant, providing your swimming pool with continuous hygiene and safe water quality.
In conclusion
Summer swimming is an enjoyable activity, but we must also be aware of its health risks. Through proper pool water disinfection methods, personal protective measures, compliance with swimming pool regulations, and the use of chlorine tablets floater to ensure clean pool water quality, we can reduce health risks and enjoy swimming to the fullest.
Now, enjoy your summer swim, but don’t forget to maintain hygiene to ensure a safer and more enjoyable swim!