Got allergies? Your swimming pool or an neighbor's one might be to blame
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
According to a study conducted in 2009 teenagers who spend more than 100 hours in chlorinated swimming pools have a six time higher chance of getting asthma and allergies.
For some people, particularly children and young people, swimming pools are second homes, where they spend hours playing shark in and around the water.
It is not so much the pool itself as the chlorine added to the water of swimming pools that increases asthma likelihood.
According to a study by Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, teenagers who spend more than 100 hours in swimming pools have a six times higher likelihood of having asthma. In fact, it's so bad that the researchers reported that, "The impact of these chemicals on the respiratory health of children and adolescents appears to be much more important – at least by a factor of five – than that associated with secondhand smoke."
The chlorine hanging in the air over the pool water affects the airways of children and adolescents. This same air, by the way, also gets to the outside world, so to speak, and can affect people adjacent to such places.
Children who swam in pools sanitized by copper or silver did not show any increase in asthma, as well as children who already had no allergic tendencies did not show any increase.
The was no word on whether children who swam in pools treated with other materials fared any better.
It can, therefore, be assumed, as indicated earlier, that the chlorine laden air that escaped from such venues would also affect people that live nearby and I can guarantee to this effect for there is a pool in our neighborhood and ever since that has arrived I tend to cough badly in the mornings thought the doctor assures that it is not asthma.
I would suggest though that it is a reaction to the chlorine for we all know, or should know, that a dangerous gas is being created when chlorine and urine mix, for instance, which does happen a lot in pools.
© 2009
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