Category: Health
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Industry organizations educating swimmers to test your pool
Organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and the Water Quality and Health Council’s Healthy Pools initiative are urging swimmers and parents to start checking their public pools for proper water treatment. How are these groups educating swimmers to do this? The CDC’s guidelines include the following steps: Check the pool’s inspection results. Use pool…
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How to prevent swimmer’s ear
Swimmer’s ear is a common ear infection caused by water sitting in the outer ear canal growing bacteria. You can get swimmer’s ear from swimming in a pool, lake, river or other body of water where the water has bacteria and germs. With pools, swimmer’s ear can be avoided if the water is kept clean and free of…
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Prepping for swim season & educating your members
Summer is here and everyone wants to cool off at the pool! How have you prepared? Public pools need to protect against and prevent recreational water illness (RWIs), like Cryptosporidium parvum and E.coli. Here is a quick checklist. Clean: Keep pool deck clean of debris and fix cracked tile/concrete. If there is debris in the…
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Case study: Clear Comfort reduces instability of chlorine levels in commercial pools
In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and prevention reported up to 5,000 emergency room visits associated with pool chemicals. Most patients were under the age of 18. In young swimmers, exposure to excessive chlorine levels in swimming pools is linked to increases in lung tissue damage, asthma and epithelium permeability that allows for toxic…
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Many public pools aren’t up to snuff: CDC report
Just in time for Memorial Day weekend when pools across the nation open to the masses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its annual report on the state of public pools. The CDC found nearly 80 percent of the almost 50,000 aquatics facilities inspected in 2013 had at least one violation, while 1 in…
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Three reasons commercial pools get shut down
Have you ever tried to go swimming and the pool was closed for health reasons? When I was a kid, I remember on many occasions going to the neighborhood pool only to find out that the pool was closed for the rest of the day because the chlorine was too high. As a competitive swimmer,…
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How to better protect your skin this summer
Summer is practically here and that means it’s finally time to trade in our snow boots and jackets for flip flops and shorts. While May is a time for fun in the sun, it’s also Melanoma and Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month, and we must remember to protect our skin. It’s easy to forget,…
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Why the air in indoor pools can trigger asthma and allergies
It’s Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month, meaning no better time to talk about air quality in indoor pool facilities and the effect on swimmers and staff. In simple terms, it’s that pool smell we all recognize the second we walk into an indoor area with a pool, be it a hotel, recreation center, school or…
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10 tips for teaching your children to swim
May is the beginning of the summer season as outdoor pools open and families take trips to the lake, river, ocean or neighborhood pool. May is also National Drowning Prevention Month. Drowning is the second leading cause of death in the United States in children ages 1 to 4 years old. The best way…
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Five Mother’s Day gifts for the backyard-loving mom
Mother’s Day is a couple days away and what better way to celebrate than by giving her a gift she can enjoy in the newly warm weather. If you’re like most of us, finding a Mother’s Day gift can be a challenge and all too often it’s left to the last minute. But this year you…