- Gastro-causing viruses, bacteria, and parasites can live in swimming pools.
- While chlorine can keep germs at bay, it doesn’t kill them all immediately.
- Cryptosporidium and Giardia are extremely infectious parasites that are highly resistant to chlorine.
- Legionella, Escherichia coli, Enterococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, are types of bacteria that can be found in your swimming pool. Total colony count gives an indication on the overall cleanliness of your pool.
- While proper disinfection and maintenance of pools are essential, it’s also important to stop germs getting into the water in the first place.
Make sure to understand and manage the microbial flora within your pool by testing pool water at accredited laboratories.
Refer to the list of accredited laboratories: https://nabmalta.gov.mt/directory-of-accredited-testing-laboratories/
Water borne-Diseases:
-Gastro-intestinal issues –> diarrhoea, stomach cramps, pain –> Duration 1-14 days
-Hot tub rash and swimmer’s ear –> 7-10days
-Serious types of pneumonia –> Shortness of breath, fever, muscle aches, and coughing –> 14-28 days
Is chlorine enough?
So, is chlorine enough to keep our swimming pools safe? There’s no doubt it’s a necessity when it comes to keeping bacteria and viruses at bay. Indeed, outbreaks of water-borne disease in recreational swimming pools due to faecally derived viruses and bacteria have generally been associated with inadequately chlorinated or non-chlorinated water.
Many people think that chlorine kills germs instantly. In fact, this isn’t the case. It actually takes different times for the same amount of chlorine to work, depending on the microorganism. Chlorine will kill bacteria such as E. coli in under a minute, but around 16 minutes to kill the hepatitis A virus. It’ll need 45 minutes to kill Giardia, and (wait for it) up to 10 days to kill Cryptosporidium.
GIVE YOURSELF PEACE OF MIND and START TESTING your swimming pool at state of the art Accredited Labs!
Additional Reading:
https://www.science.org.au/curious/everything-else/swimming-pool