Photo Credit: Courtesy of Aquatic Design Group
The potential for recreational water illnesses (RWIs) within aquatic facilities has pool operators scrambling. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), between January 2005 and December 2006 (the most recent data available), there were 4,412 incidents of RWIs, including 116 hospitalizations and five deaths.
According to the CDC, RWIs are spread by swallowing, breathing, or having contact with contaminated water from swimming pools, spas, hot tubs, decorative water fountains, lakes, rivers or oceans. RWIs can cause a variety of skin, ear, respiratory, eye and wound infections. The most commonly reported RWI is diarrhea, which can be caused by germs, such as Cryptosporidium (Crypto), Giardia, Shigella and E.coli.
Properly sanitizing pool water is thus of the utmost importance to pool operators. Given the small size of RWI organisms, filtration alone is probably not the answer. There are alternative methods to improve filtration--such as the use of flocculants and polymers--but they can be expensive and impractical. Good water chemistry is the most cost-effective and user-friendly approach to preventing RWIs.