Swimming pool disinfectants like chlorine react with urine and cosmetics to produce harmful substances that may have health risk; the researchers say. At the same time swimming is not discouraged. Adequate precaution in this aspect is advised to follow in order to protect pool hygiene.
Swimming Pool Chemicals May Carry Cancer Risk
September 15, 2010 — Swimming in indoor pools may result in respiratory effects and induce DNA damage that could lead to cancer, according to new research that examined the impact of byproducts of pool disinfection.
But the researchers emphasize they are not suggesting anyone get out of the pool. "We do not say stop swimming," says researcher Manolis Kogevinas, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona. "We should keep a clear message that swimmers should keep swimming."
The research findings, he tells WebMD, are a message to the industry that ''the positive effects of swimming could be increased by reducing the chemicals."
''We have been doing research on chemicals in water -- not swimming pools [specifically] -- for quite some time," Kogevinas says. More recently, he and his colleagues have focused more intently on indoor swimming pool water. "Chemicals are produced when you put chlorine in water," he says. Chlorine reacts, for instance, to urine, cosmetics, and other substances typically found in swimming pools.
The researchers wanted to characterize these disinfection byproducts, or DBPs, in an indoor pool environment. Other studies have linked DBP exposure in drinking water to a risk of bladder cancer and other problems.
Kogevinas suggests that people who swim in indoor pools follow rules, such as not urinating in the pool and showering before swimming.
Read more at www.medscape.com
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