This article discusses the potential risks of chemicals found in pools that can cause damage to your skin, eyes, and lungs. It also offers steps you can take to reduce your risk. This includes avoiding unnecessary contact with pool water and using sunscreen and safe swimming goggles.
If you have asthma or respiratory conditions such as bronchitis or emphysema, chlorine fumes may aggravate your condition. Chemicals in pool water can overstimulate the lining of the airways and inflame breathing tubes in people with asthma. This may cause wheezing or difficulty breathing in some people with asthma. When this happens, the lining of the airways becomes swollen, narrows, and traps more mucus (phlegm). Breathing becomes harder.
Inhaling or swallowing pool water or swallowing pool chemicals can cause health problems. Inhaled gases such as chlorine fumes can irritate the upper respiratory tract. Consuming chlorine produces a toxic chemical in the stomach that damages cells and tissues in the mouth and throat. Chlorine fumes also have acid when they mix with stomach acid, which may cause burns in the esophagus or small intestines, which carry food to your stomach. Swallowing pool water will cause bleeding and infection in the stomach and intestines.
Skin burns can occur when chlorine comes in contact with the skin. The chlorine combines with sweat, causing acid to be formed on the skin, which may cause itching, dryness, or cracking. Chlorine irritates the eyes and can cause damage to the cornea, redness, swelling, watering of the eyes, pain, and general discomfort. Plants coated with algae are dangerous if brought indoors because they contain chemicals that can irritate your eyes and airways.
Carbon monoxide gas is produced by a faulty pool pump which transfers gasoline fumes into the pool water. Carbon monoxide is odorless, colorless, and highly poisonous. There is no colorless warning that the pool pump needs to be fixed. Breathing carbon monoxide causes headaches, dizziness, weakness, and confusion, which may lead to drowning.
Chemicals found in pool water can cause health effects if you swallow them or get them in your eyes. Consuming pool water or getting it in your mouth can cause stomach and intestinal problems or gastrointestinal burns that may lead to death. People exposed to chlorine gas have suffered various symptoms ranging from burning eyes and throat, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, and wheezing. Chlorine reacts with stomach acid to form hydrochloric acid, which may cause burning and irritation of the esophagus, small intestines, stomach, and intestines.
People using unauthorized pool chemicals in their swimming pool may be at risk of ingesting chemical residue. Swallowing pool water with these chemicals can cause stomach and intestinal problems or gastrointestinal burns that may lead to death. Studies on rats fed nitrates showed an increased risk of developing bladder cancer and cancers of the kidney, liver, and thyroid. These cancers were not found in rats, not fed nitrates.