Chlorine and Urine can Kill, Part II

I got a lot of emails and feedback on this topic, but none better than ROBERT T. BURROWS' email below. 

Mel,

I picked up your post, 'Chlorine and Urine can Kill' on Twitter and find your perspective intriguing, but a bit disconcerting as an Aquatics professional. Intriguing from the standpoint that the competitive swimming world, definitely no disrespect intended, who spend their lives in and around chlorinated pools by and large have little understanding of either the health issues related to swimming pool DBP's or their causation. This I also find disconcerting because so often the ill affects of DBP's on swimmers are erroneously blamed on chlorine itself, when it is actually the combination of chlorine with human effluvial in the pool that cause the harmful elements to form, which you clearly and thankfully pointed out. I write not to refute Dr. Mercola's research or your point of view, but to accentuate the fact that chloramine formation is due to the inefficient use of chlorine as a sanitizer in pool water. A by-product is a “side-effect” or “unintended” result caused by another action. In the case of chloramines, or the by-products of disinfection, they are a result of incomplete oxidation of these precursors (sweat, pee, other body debris) in the water, not overchlorination, or chlorine use in general. Prevention has been the focus of health advocate groups such as the CDC in recent years, but little attention has been given to the proper and effective use of chlorine as a preventative measure in the development of DBP's. There is much to say about this topic, but most of it has previously been said and much has been written. Here are a few links that may be helpful to you and your readers related to this topic. Please feel free to reply or contact me if you have any questions. I have numerous resources that I can refer you to for further thought.

http://ppoa.org/article_Chloramine%20Odor.htm ; Tired of Chloramine Odor? Pumproom Press, PPOA.org, Richard Young, Aquatic Commercial

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyswimming/irritants.htm ; Irritants and Indoor Pools, CDC Healthy Swimming

http://www.cdc.gov/search.do?action=search&queryText=Chloramines&image.x=11&image.y=10 ; cdc.gov search result: chloramines

Follow ROBERT T. BURROWS on twitter. 

Thanks again, Robert, for your insight. Please follow up with any more information. 

Comments

[gmm]

I know, Robin. Robert's got great info....

[Robin]

I'm working on becoming a Certified Pool Operator so it's interesting to see these links.