With holiday festivities finished, many people turn their thoughts to fitness and improving their health in the new year. One of the best ways to stay fit is by swimming, but the presence of chlorine in pools keeps many people away from the activity.
Dirk de Villiers, owner of the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Powell River, loves to swim and would love to swim more in the pool at Powell River Recreation Complex, if City of Powell River would stop using chlorine to disinfect the water. “I love going to the pool, my kids love to go to the pool as well, but I’m just in there for five or 10 minutes, then my eyes are tearing, my throat is scratchy,” said the father of six.
Chlorine creates a chemical soup in pools, forming a number of by-products, said de Villiers. “There have been studies linking that to asthma and various allergies, from skin to eye irritations,” he said. “There was even a small study in 2010 linking it to the increasing of cancer markers.”
Chloramines, a by-product of chlorine disinfection, are responsible for the odour, irritation and enhanced corrosion associated with indoor aquatic facilities.
New studies have identified more than 100 chemical by-products in pools that use chlorine as a disinfectant. The studies, which were small, found a rise in blood markers that have been associated with cancer, not a rise in cancer itself. Other studies have concluded that chlorine by-products are a major risk factor for rising rates of asthma, airway irritation and allergic diseases.
All of these things are a concern, de Villiers said, especially for families with babies and young children. There are better ways to treat the water in pools, he added, by installing technologies that use ozone or ultraviolet (UV) light as ways of disinfecting the water. “Those things are not bad for your health,” he said.
Other alternatives to chlorine include using salt water or copper and silver ions. Ozone has a number of benefits, such as killing micro-organisms that cause diseases and oxidizing the organics and inorganics that create chloramines, eliminating their production.
De Villiers has been in touch with the city about making a switch, he said, but he was told that it wasn’t financially feasible and the community wouldn’t support it. “In their opinion, ozone pools have a problem as well,” he said. “But that’s not what I have read and understood from experts.”
DeVilliers understands that alternative systems can be expensive and he didn’t expect the city to pay for a different system. “My idea was to get the community motivated in a project,” he said. “They paid for the CT scan at the hospital. That was a whole project with the community and they paid quite a bit of it, then the province contributed as well.”
If he can motivate the community and get city council on side, de Villiers said, then he could approach experts to obtain options for a system other than chlorine and an estimate of how much it would cost.
One of the people de Villiers has been speaking to about his idea is Doug Young, who founded Convertible Pool Products International, a one-stop shopping centre for retail pool dealers, which he eventually sold. Before he retired, he was the general manager of Jacuzzi’s Canadian operation and one of their United States’ operations. He supports de Villiers idea. “Ozone in my view is a better way to go,” he said. “When you have facilities like the ones we have in this town, it’s important that they’re utilized properly. They’re not being utilized because it’s all chlorine.”
A swimming pool system has water running through circulation tubes, Young explained, which draws off the bottom, then goes through a filter to be cleaned. “I say cleaned. What I really mean is the cleaning knocks out stuff in the water, like leaves, bathing suit parts, stuff like that.”
There are three ways to cut bacteria in a pool, Young said. “The first way is you put chlorine in. Chlorine produces chloramines, which makes your eyes go itchy and your bathing suit disintegrate.”
The way to get around using chlorine is through ultraviolet or ozone systems, which do the same thing to bacteria that chlorine does. “It goes to the bacteria and it explodes. It’s no longer alive. It’s a bunch of stuff in the pool and the filter takes it out.”
Bacteria is in the air, it’s on people, it’s everywhere, Young said. “The way to reduce chloramines from chlorine is to use ozone or ultraviolet. Or you can use both. It depends on how rich you are and how much you want to spend on it.”
Bill Reid, director of parks, recreation and culture, said staff have been researching the issue, particularly using UV equipment, which would minimize the amount of chlorine that has to be used. While he has allocated money in his capital budget requests for the equipment, it has never been approved in an annual budget, he added.
Glenn McQuarrie, chief engineer at the recreation complex, explained that the system for the pool uses gas chlorination. “Basically we have what’s called an ejector,” he said. “It’s an administration connection into the pool water, that’s located in a filter room, externally from the pool.”
The system adds chlorine gas, which mixes with the water, McQuarrie said. “When samples are taken and results are found, adjustments are made,” he said.
Staff are just beginning to research alternatives to using chlorine, McQuarrie added. “A lot of the technology is new and it’s changing all the time.”
With both ozone and UV systems, McQuarrie said, the water is treated outside of the pool. “You still have to be concerned with the water in the pool,” he said. “That’s where we take our samples. If somebody gets in the pool with dirty feet, you’re bringing that right in there.”
Neither ozone nor UV travels into the pool to disinfect the water, he added. “Chlorine is delivered to the pool and in the pool, so it’s there to disinfect if the pool becomes dirty,” he said. “You are protected.”
Even in systems that use chlorine, there are ways to reduce how much has to be used. Swimmers can make a difference, too. Showering before entering a pool washes off much of the organic material that reacts with chlorine to produce toxic by-products.
De Villiers would like to hear from members of the community about his idea and if they think it should be pursued. He can be reached at 604.485.5530.
