I was so excited to learn our pool was finally converting to salt water. While I was swimming, the pool dude dumped 3 huge bags of salt in each lane. That night I experienced sinusitis -- huge thick amounts of mucus (sorry, I know this is gross). That was a week ago. I'm still sick - just tons of gunk coming out everyday, I'm really fatigued, can't taste anything. I haven't had a voice in 3 days (some people are happy about that!:applaud:
I haven't swam since Friday. Is this possible that the sudden onslaught of salt brought this on? I wear a silicone cap and nose clips. I'm trying to do this the natural way - ginger tea, and an antihistamine, but I miss the pool. This is a bummer
This threads reminds of the late 70's when the pool maintenance at our local high school and college facility was handled by the janitor. (Not sure if that's politically correct these days, but that's who he was.)
One day the chlorine level was apparently on the low side. He grabbed a very large bucket of chlorine tablets which were about the size of charcoal briquettes. After dumping the entire contents of this stuff in and around the shallow and deep ends, we were given the all clear to swim.
No wonder we all had hair like tinsel, coughed like seals, and the street lights had a magical halo around them at night!!
Back to today's protocol and the original post... any chemicals or product which alters the pool chemistry is typically never allowed to be done while swimmers are in the water. That's probably the cause of your reaction, because it came in such a huge dose.
On a positive note, salt water pools prevent chlorine from binding with the bacteria which in turn reduce the chloramine levels. The salt pools tend to keep your skin feeling smooth and much less itchy. The only draw back is that a salt water pool can't be used for competition according to the rule books. That's why many facilities don't have this set up which can be really optimal in fending off all the negative effects of chlorine.
The only draw back is that a salt water pool can't be used for competition according to the rule books. That's why many facilities don't have this set up which can be really optimal in fending off all the negative effects of chlorine.
That's too bad. I wish the pool here was salt water.
According to this website, water is not technically salt water until a threshold of 6000ppm.
Perhaps the rule could be changed to allow up to 5000 ppm of sodium chloride for competition purposes.
Which rule books are you referring to? It isn’t the USMS or USA Swimming rule books.
Nor FINA. The only thing that is really dictated related to water conditions is the temperature.
Nor FINA. The only thing that is really dictated related to water conditions is the temperature.
This is really interesting (for me anyway) since we've been trying to lobby our local Y to find an alternate to chlorine for the past four or five years . The director and aquatics manager (who is also the swim coach) flat out said no, and that he would not consider the salt. The reason being, that the kids team would be prohibited from hosting officially sanctioned swim meets "according to the rule book".
Having done more research, it turns out that salt pools are indeed legal, and have become much more common as mentioned in this article about a Y in Allentown PA. The expense seems quite reasonable, and the health benefits surely outweigh the conversion costs.
Interestingly, our local lifesaving corporation has raised enough money to go with an ionization system which is slightly less money than the salt conversion. Apologies for the misinformation! And thank you for pointing this out!!
Having done more research, it turns out that salt pools are indeed legal, and have become much more common as mentioned in this article about a Y in Allentown PA. The expense seems quite reasonable, and the health benefits surely outweigh the conversion costs.
The article about the Y's conversion to a saltwater pool is awesome.
More stories like this would help the process of having more pools converted to salt water.
