Swimming Pools: Why You Don't Want One

For those of us who do not have pools in our backyards, it seems like the greatest idea since lemonade stands. It's hot outside, the humidity might start really climbing, you want a way to cool down and a cold shower simply isn't going to do the trick. Driving to the beach involves traffic, parking fees and fighting a crowd and gosh darn it, wouldn't a pool be just the thing? Well, after having done some research on the idea, it seems that having a pool in your backyard this summer may be more trouble and danger than it's worth.

The first thing you need to do after building your pool is finding a way to maintain it. Since the West Nile Virus has become such a threat in the past few years, most places in the US have regulations and rules for keeping your pool nice and blue, with a minimum level of chlorine or other disinfectant for regulating your pool's breeding desirability to mosquitoes. According to the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, "If your pool goes "green" (without a disinfecting agent) for more than two days, it can be considered a breeding ground for anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 mosquitoes per day and depending on where you live, you can be cited for the offense and your pool can be considered a public nuisance" rather than the private paradise you intended for it to be. Keeping your pool a crystal blue isn't as perfectly easy as adding huge amounts of chlorine though. There are large numbers of pool owners who have tried everything in their power to keep their pool clear to no avail. Pool maintenance companies would certainly love to sell you expensive chemicals and tell you that adding a little more of this or that might help and experimenting is a must for frustrated pool owners wishing to avoid a citation by the city, and an ugly, unusable pool. The whole point was to swim with a smile on your face, not get eaten alive by mosquitoes, right?

But wait. Overstimulating your pool with chlorine isn't a great idea, either. Introducing your body to harmful chemicals that you would never bathe in (if you could avoid it) is something that nobody should be crazy about doing. An extremely common problem that pool owners experience without even knowing it is pool over-chlorination. Anybody who has used a public pool knows all about this. You can smell the chlorine from the parking lot at most club, gym, resort and community pools. Burning off the bacteria from other human bodies is fine, but keep in mind that chlorine is extremely dangerous stuff. Peter Papachronopolous of the Miscellany News reports that "recent research of this powerful sanitizer published in the American Journal of Public Healh has raised serious concerns regarding its effect on the human body...One of the most serious is 'swimmer's asthma'...As the chemical evaporates, it remains heavily concentrated as vapor above the surface of the pool." Apparently those who swim in any pool that has chlorine in it will inhale this vapor. Over-chlorinated pools offer the most risk, though, and those who swim daily have the highest risk of contracting this type of asthma. Respiratory problems aren't the only issues that arise from chlorine exposure, however. Dental Enamel Corrosion and a heightened risk of Melanoma (the most deadly type of skin cancer) are also significant risks of swimming in a pool that has been over chlorinated. "Not only is chlorine inhaled while swimming, it is absorbed through the skin as well," says Peter. Don't for a second think that this only applies to competitive swimmers though. According to an article on Science a go-go, "According to research in Occupational and Environmental science...for children who swim frequently, the damage found was equivalent to the damage found in the lungs of regular smokers." And then there are the less detrimental (but immediately assaulting) results of chlorine exposure. Red, dry, itchy eyes, equally dry skin and hair and let's not even mention the lovely shade of green that you blond lads and lasses will accumulate in your hair if you swim often. Amazingly, though, there are no federal regulations toward the use of Chlorine (an obviously dangerous product) in pools; but we know better! Between melanoma, asthma, permanent lung damage, dental decay, green hair, dry skin and bloodshot eyes, pools are not sounding like a good idea just now, are they?

So is there any possible way to escape chlorine and still maintain a healthy (in all senses of the word) pool? Of course there are. Options range from using ozone gas to ultra-violet light, to simply switching to a different, ostensibly less dangerous chemical. All of these options involve continuing to use a small amount of chlorine to kill the left over bacteria that these options don't get rid of, but the amount of chlorine that they call for is so much lower than a regularly chlorinated pool that the danger levels are absolutely nil unless you're already deathly allergic to even tiny amounts of the dangerous chemical. The only problem with these chlorine alternatives is that they are almost exclusively still in the research phase and nearly none of them are available to the public just yet.

There are other things to consider when you have a pool that you may not think about before you decide to have one built in your yard. You have to "winterize" it every Fall, when the weather starts to cool down and when it starts to warm up in the spring, you have to "summerize" it again. The work that it takes to care for a pool, combined with the damage that chlorine presents to swimmers and the cost of upkeep year round spells out certain disapproval for those thinking about having a pool in their backyard this or any other summer. My opinion? Brave the traffic and take the kids to the beach.

Sources:

City of Scottsdale, "Public Health Information - Mosquitoes - Green Pools" City of Scottsdale URL: (http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/health/mosquito/greenpools.asp)

Peter Papachronopolous, "Chlorine Poses Threat To Swimmers' Health" The Miscellany News URL: (http://misc.vassar.edu/archives/2004/10/chlorine_poses.html)

Science A Go Go Contributors, "Pool Chlorine Implicated in Childhood Asthma" Science A Go Go URL: (http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20030428215935data_trunc_sys.shtml)

Allan Finney, "Alternatives to Chlorine for Swimming Pools" About.com URL: (http://swimming.about.com/od/allergyandasthma/a/cl_pool_problem_3.htm)

Zipckr, "Hotel Is Molas: Swimming Pool" Flickr URL: (http://www.flickr.com/photos/7363465@N08/601981988)