Note that chlorine compounds are not the only dangerous chemicals in use at pools. Muriatic acid comes to mind as very dangerous if not used with care. Also, Google to the rescue. Try these two searches:
pool chlorine fumes
muriatic acid fumes
S
HCl fumes permanently destroy lung tissue. Chlorine and chloramine gases, if concentrated enough, can be bad too but at pool levels it's way too weak. Unless someone drops a gallon of HCl acid on the ground. I got hit by a some hcl fumes once and it was some terrible stuff.
We were discussing nose-clips on another thread to deal with the repercussions of this PH imbalance situation.
I posted this note:
Definitely make the effort to send letters/emails to the pool operators and club management to inform them of the problem. It is rare that the pool operator actually swims in the pool so don't assume he/she knows about it!
More than likely it is a PH imbalance. Not always easy to fix if it is a far gone issue. But poor maintanence practice is big problem at many pools.
Big days at the pool - meets or consecutive full workouts can mean a deluge of urine and other nasties. Chemicals have to be adjusted to clean it up - and then adjusted back to maintenance mode.
I coached some masters swimmers who are actually active elected board of director members of our club.
One BOD swimmer wrote a letter inviting the management to "join us for a workout".
The hope was that swimming in the offensive water might finally help them realize the severity of the issue. Constantly complaining about it for months/years wasn't working.
Do not assume they know.
And now the press may play it out badly for us.
But we don't want to loose swimmers or potential new members.
We just want the pool operators to do their job and keep the balance of chemicals.
If chlorine gas is worrying you, then don't read this blog post by our good friend Gold Medal Mel:
www.goldmedalmel.typepad.com/.../chlorine-and-pee-pee-can-kill-you.html
Here's an excerpt:
After years and years of competitive swimming, and training, and peeing in pools all over the planet, I learned the toxic truth regarding my actions: it can kill.
I've read this before, but I never really paid attention. Now it seems the news is everywhere, or maybe I'm just getting older and more susceptible to worrying.
Apparently, organic material such as hair, skin, dried sweat and urine, reacts with chlorine, creating disinfection byproducts (DBPs) that are 10,000 times more toxic than just chlorine.
Common DBPs formed from this swimming pool cocktail are trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. Trihalomethanes, Cancer Group B carcinogens, cause cancer in lab rats. They've also been implicated in other disturbing problems; spontaneous abortion, stillbirths, congenital malformations.
The bad news doesn't end there. DBPs weaken your immune system, screw with your nervous system, and deteriorate your cardiovascular system.
In the last several weeks, every time I'd do increased distance, I'd find myself unable to do any swim (or sometimes any) workout the next day.
I would have a feeling of "coming down with something"--sometimes with cold/allergy symptoms. I wasn't at first making the connection--but when it happened (it seemed) every Monday (the day after my more extended workouts), I began getting suspicious.
This week has been too busy for any kind of swimming (fortunately for me, I'm also a runner) but with the start of the new year, I plan to renew my membership at the local high school pool which is better maintained than the one I've been using.
Doesn't matter how well pool chemistry is implemented, water quality is limited to frequency and quantity of water change.
As I swim around the buoy, about a 100 yards offshore fronting Janet Gaynor's bungalow, there's no way I'm going back to the filthy pool. I'll take my chances with all the spill/runoffs, man-o-wars, sharks, sea urchins, and other sea creatures lurking about me. Swimming with green sea turtles is worth it.
I'd like to hear a chemist chime in here, but my understanding is the concentration of elemental chlorine gas in a pool's atmosphere is going to be pretty close to nil. Chlorine compounds, yes, but chlorine, no. It's so reactive it doesn't stay in its elemental form for long. Now I also know that some tiny fraction of molecules are going to crack apart in water - even tap water has some free H and OH ions in it. Whether chlorine ions get produced in the pool and if so how long they remain as ions when the reach the air is what I'm not sure of.
Sweating is meant to cool the body by evaporation. Unless the pool temperature is very high I suspect heat conduction between your body and the water is sufficient so sweating isn't necessary. If the pool is too warm (or your heat output is too high), then your body will probably sweat even though it will serve no purpose other than to dehydrate you and make the pool a bit saltier/dirtier.
S
