Alternatives to Chlorine in Swimming Pools Essay

It's the middle of summer, and pool parties are in full swing. People enjoy relaxing in cool water on a hot summer day. Kids in the city like to go for a dip in the city recreational pool for fun. Certainly, swimming is a great exercise, burns calories, and is good for your health in general. However, there is a down side. Often, swimmers complain about the strong chlorine odor in the pool. Well, the chlorine provides a very basic function. The chlorine destroys bacteria and germs in the pool water. Or does it?

Water contamination is vastly becoming an alarming issue across the world. We rely on clean water to survive, yet right now we are heading towards a water crisis. Changing climate patterns are threatening lakes and rivers, and key sources that we tap for drinking water are being overdrawn or tainted with pollution (www.nrdc.org). Clean and plentiful water is the cornerstone of prosperous communities. Yet as we enter the 21st century, swelling demand and changing climate patterns are

Being a city beach, Bondi is an easy target for water pollution. It is swam in by millions of people every summer and is a major landmark for Australia and is an iconic beach. After looking into previous experiments on the health effects of swimming at Bondi Beach, it became clear that there are major concerns for the health of citizens; causing less people to swim at the beach. The main health worries are while swimming, although not infections from being in the water, but drowning. However, after a large downpour of rain, the water is not recommended to swim in. I want to see if swimming in Bondi beach has negative effects and if we should be doing it with little knowledge of how our body might react to the bacteria and pollution in the water.

The chemicals that Clorox bleach contains are water, sodium hypochlorite, sodium chloride, coco-betaine, fragrance, sodium carbonate, sodium chlorate, sodium hydroxide, sodium [olyacrylate, and sodium xylene sulfonate. Sodium hypochlorite has several short term potential health risks such as causing irritation and burns when in contact with skin, causing eye damage and irritation when in contact with eyes, irritating the nose, throat, and lungs upon inhalation, which can cause shortness of breath and pulmonary edema at higher exposures, and can also cause headache, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. Chronic health effects include bronchitis after repeated exposure to inhalation. Fragrance can cause skin irritation, allergy, and has been linked to organ system toxicity. Sodium carbonate can be corrosive to the gastro intestinal tract if ingested. It can also cause blistering when in contact with skin and can be corrosive to eyes and cause conjuctival edema and corneal destruction. Sodium chlorate can irritate and burn skin and eyes, and can cause nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain, as well as damage the kidneys and affect the liver. High levels of sodium chlorate can reduce the body’s ability to transport oxygen and at very high levels, exposure can lead to death. Sodium hydroxide is corrosive to skin and

volatilization of the chloroform into the air and this increases the exposure due to inhalation. The high temperature of water will also increase dermal absorption of chloroform. Of special interest, are wooden hot tubs. In this case, there is a constant source of organic matter(wood) for the chlorine to react with, and therefore increased concentrations of chloroform.

Pharmaceuticals are defined as prescription, over the counter and veterinary therapeutic drugs used to prevent or treat human and animal diseases, while personal care products (PCPs) are used mainly to improve the quality of daily life [16]. Over the past few years, there has been growing awareness of the unintentional presence of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) in various compartments of the aquatic environment at concentrations capable of causing detrimental effects to the aquatic organisms. This has become a major concern because PPCPs are extensively and increasingly used in human and veterinary medicine, resulting in their continuous release to the environment.

The use of chlorine revolutionized pool sanitation and cleanliness in the early 1900s. While there have been large improvements in the construction of pools since the mid-twentieth century, the products available for sanitation and the policies regarding them remain mostly the same today. Chlorine is excellent at keeping bacteria levels down in pools, but there are still improvements to be made and caution must be used during pool maintenance. Chlorine can cause deterioration of the cornea and respiratory issues, including an increase in asthma among individuals who frequent indoor pools. Additionally, chlorinated water runoff from pools and hot tubs into waterways can be detrimental to wildlife, even at rates as low as 0.011 ppm (Olsen,

However, chemically speaking hydrochloric acid and the bleach form a toxic gas when combined. Clorox and with calcium chloride formed a cloudy solution. At the end, it is observed that thymol blue, silver nitrate, and blue food coloring showed more reactivity than the other reagents because it reacted with all the household chemicals. Calcium chloride and hydrochloric acid did not indicate any significant reactive factors with the household chemicals, due to the higher they are on the activity

Chlorine was first discovered by a man whose profession was in the medical field. However, since it was 1774, the technology wasn’t as advanced and therefore led him to misleading conclusions. Carl Wilhelm Sheele was a Swedish pharmacist who, “released a few drops of hydrochloric acid onto a piece of manganese dioxide in his lab, and a greenish-yellow gas was produced in a matter of seconds…” (Alchin, Linda. “The Element Chlorine.” What Is Chlorine?, www.elementalmatter.info/element-chlorine.htm.). Before Sir Humphry Davy, people thought that Chlorine was a form of oxygen. Sir Humphry Davy later proved otherwise. Although this element was never thought to be used this way, in World War I Chlorine was used as a “choking agent”. Men would suffer

In conclusion, the chemistry which occurs in a pool is a set of complex reactions which all react with each other to form chemical equilibrium; however, as seen by the Belmont Villas Complex Pool, just because the system is at equilibrium, it does not mean that the system is balanced and healthy. Whilst the Belmont Villas pool was at equilibrium, its levels for pH, alkalinity, free chlorine, combined chlorine, total chlorine, hardness and cyanuric acid were far below acceptable levels, and so many measures (as discussed above) must be undertaken in order to improve its health and make it safe and comfortable to swim in. However, this reaction is also linked to the pH of the system; as OH- is a product of this reaction, this could affect the

Michael Puccini EP has been professionally investigating and researching indoor air quality and water quality issues for over twenty-five years. In his profession, he has been awarded the ECO Canada Environmental Professional (EP) Certificate which is a formal recognition of the national standard of excellence in environmental work. Experiences includes over ten years conducting chemical analysis in the laboratory and in the field on many of the toxins that are discussed in this book. As a formal water quality analyst, he has diverse experience related to aesthetic and health related problems associated with small and large domestic water treatment/distribution/storage systems. Furthermore his analytical knowledge has been a primary

One wouldn’t consider regular use of products to be dangerous chemicals. During the summer months, many people are maintaining their pool and don’t even know that there is danger in mixing these hazardous substances such as pool chemicals. It came as a surprise to learn that there is even danger in delivering and receiving these pool chemicals, there was an incident close in the area where I work. “Police say pool chemicals in the back of a pool company truck interacted with one another and caught fire” (News12, 2017). Nevertheless, if this affected the police officers who were near, who suffered from chemical inhalation and the Department of Environmental Conservation was needed to properly clean up. While these chemicals may be safe in

Breakage: While chlorine helps keep pool water clean and clear of bacteria, it can have a harsh effect on your hair and skin. As you immerse your hair in the water, the hair shafts intake chlorine, which rids each one of its natural

Safe water is one discipline that health inspectors are associated with and it encompasses many aspects such as recreational water: this includes commercial swimming pools. This means that commercial pools are inspected by public health inspectors and there are several reasons why commercial pools are inspected by health inspectors. An improperly maintained pool can result in damage to the recirculation equipment, poor water quality, unsafe physical hazards, or skin irritations among the pool patrons. Moreover, the greatest hazards associated with an improperly maintained pool, is the risk of bathers contracting infectious diseases in the water and the risk of physical hazards affecting public safety: in other words, an improperly maintained pool can have health hazards. Some examples of these include suction hazards from main drains and Pseudomonas Aeruginosa infections. Hence, public health inspection interventions are required to identify and mitigate potential health hazards that can be present in a commercial pool (Manitoba Health, 2015). Health inspectors are the ones who conduct public health inspection interventions and will be

Industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere, including but not limited to the United States as well as Europe, have discharged roughly 90 percent of CFCs currently in the atmosphere. These countries did put a ban on CFCs by 1996. It has been shown that the amount of chlorine in the atmosphere is now dwindling. Scientists now estimate it will take an additional 50 years for chlorine levels to rebound to their natural