indoor pool air quality and feeling bad

Our team just went thru a very bad timeline with our local city centre and the fans & chemicals were both way off for a spell! We e-mailed the centre & the city to found out that - YES they know of it & will fix it this summer??!!. Well after a long list of our breathing problems were posted, they fixed the fan so that at least now the bad air moves.

Here's a comment in the SwimSwam article linked above (by "Hulk Swim", not me btw): I did some math while in Greensboro. Let’s say 1/3 of the kids peed in the pool each session- that’s conservative. Each time leaving a cup of urine. Over the course of the three day meet, that’s 2,000 cups of pee. 1) gross 2) not sure any system can handle that In conclusion… stop pissing in the pool. 2000 cups is 125 GALLONS. That changes pool chemistry. And like "Hulk Swim" said, that 125 gallons is probably a conservative estimate. I've noticed many changes in swimming and in pool culture since I came back to swimming regularly after a 30+ year break. What surprised me the most was how acceptable it is to pee in the pool. A college swimmer told me recently that her coach told the team to pee in the gutter at a meet instead of trying to get in and out of their tech suits. I understand the tech suit on/off issue. But it would be a lot more sanitary to pee in the shower. And it wouldn't affect the pool chemistry. As swimmers we are the ones being affected (breathing issues, unnecessarily poor performances) by pool air quality caused by bad pool chemistry. If we are contributing to this, as seems clear from the articles pwb gave links to, we can do our part by just NOT PEEING IN THE POOL. It seems that this is one pool culture issue that should go retro, and become unacceptable again. Let's get the word out, please!I agree urine in the pool is disgusting, but I believe it has a minor direct impact on the air quality. Chemicals (possibly because of urine) and ventilation are the major factors. A 50m x 25yd x 8ft = 99,000 cu.ft., with 7.48 gall. per cu.ft. the pool would have 776,160 gal., 125 represents .016%

I agree urine in the pool is disgusting, but I believe it has a minor direct impact on the air quality. Chemicals (possibly because of urine) and ventilation are the major factors. A 50m x 25yd x 8ft = 99,000 cu.ft., with 7.48 gall. per cu.ft. the pool would have 776,160 gal., 125 represents .016% Its the combination of the disinfectant chlorine with ammonia in urine (and with other nitrogenous organic compounds people carry into and release in the pool i.e., sweat, lotions, perfume, etc.) that results in the formation of chloramines (mono, di and tri) and these are the chemicals that cause the problem. They are released from the water by all the splish splashing away in the pool and because they are heavier than air the chemicals concentrate on the water surface trapped in by the pool walls, and that is where we breathe.

Its the combination of the disinfectant chlorine with ammonia in urine (and with other nitrogenous organic compounds people carry into and release in the pool i.e., sweat, lotions, perfume, etc.) that results in the formation of chloramines (mono, di and tri) and these are the chemicals that cause the problem. They are released from the water by all the splish splashing away in the pool and because they are heavier than air the chemicals concentrate on the water surface trapped in by the pool walls, and that is where we breathe. Okay, but isn't ventilation a more significant factor. When I have breathing issues, it is always in an indoor pool, and I swam 2.4 mi. in the Navesink river (and survived :) this chemical jungle).

I suffer with asthma at some meets. PWB had good suggestions. One of the pools where I practice has always been good for me, but my granddaughter told me that when her high school team swam there they had a lot of breathing problems. I asked the Aquatic Dir about it. She said that in most pools the ventilation system cannot handle a large group like 40 from the swim team. I then realized that is what happens at a meet. At U of TX for instance. There were 1800 swimmers. We churn up a lot water and chemicals and the ventilation can't clear it all. By Sunday, I could only swim 50s. But when I got in the car with AC to drive friends to the airport, my breathing was great. Auburn was bad for me also. I hung around all day on distance day and ruined my meet. At a long meet, go back to the hotel, if possible, or find an air conditioned area.

Okay, but isn't ventilation a more significant factor. When I have breathing issues, it is always in an indoor pool, and I swam 2.4 mi. in the Navesink river (and survived :) this chemical jungle). The ventilation systems in most newer pools should be designed to turn the air over and scour the pool surface under normal conditions. They are apparently installing vac systems in the pool gutters to assist with removal at the water surface. Big meets and lots of swimmers can apparently overwhelm even the gutter vac systems (the load of precursor chemicals goes way up at these times), especially if air flow above the pool and at the deck level is obstructed by banners and barricades. It's also so simple to reduce the load - just shower and don't pee in the pool. I suspect goggles are responsible for the "just pee in the pool culture". Back in the day you could only swim an hour + before your eyes were burning and you had to get out (we also had to swim two miles up hill both ways to school), and now one can just keep swimming past normal bladder capacities. As one of the articles points out engineers have intentionally added chloramines to drinking water to sustain disinfecting capabilities at the far ends of large water distribution systems. Free chlorine doesn't last long enough to keep on killing, so small amounts of chloramines are intentionally added and maintained. Thus some chloramines may be added to a pool too from the water system's make-up water. I survived 1 mile in the Schuylkill river a few years back, which might be as bad as the Navesink :D.