Swimming With Sharks

Here's a good article about why it's important to use a sanitizer in your swimming pool.

Swimming in a pool or spa without any sanitizer is like swimming with sharks. Life is full of risks. We need to manage those risks in our personal life plus protect the lives of our loved ones. Would you let your children swim in a pool with sharks? Of course you would not. Would you let your children swim in a pool without sanitizer such as chlorine or bromine?

What is the risk of swimming in a pool of water without sanitizer? Just three words – recreational water illnesses (RWI). People can become ill or possibly die from exposure to microorganisms such as E.Coli, Giardia, Shigella, norovirus, cryptosporidium, and Legionella bacteria. Legionella bacteria can cause Pontiac Fever if the water is swallowed and Legionnaires' disease if water vapor is inhaled. Legionnaires' disease can be very serious and can cause death in 5% to 30% of cases. This fatality rate is higher than some Ebola viruses.

According to the nature shows, sharks do not like the taste of people. They only bite people mistaking them for seals or their favorite prey. The chance of being attacked by a shark is 1 in 10,000,000 which are slightly better odd than winning a lottery. You have better odds to be struck by lightning -1 in 500,000 odds.

What are the odds of acquiring RWI’s? I really do not know. Worldwide there is an average of 50 – 70 shark attacks on humans per year. There are thousands of cases of RWI per year in the United States. In 2005, up to 4000 people were exposed to cryptosporidium at a splash pad in New York State. In 2007, Utah saw 1,049 confirmed cases of cryptosporidium — an outbreak that has prompted health officials to ban children under 5 from public swimming pools. In 2008, all 29 public swimming pools in the city of Phoenix were closed down after cryptosporidium was detected at one pool.

To be continued with the next post.

Source: Pool Genius Network