Information : GES Limited - swimming pools

Swimming Pools

Swimming Pools /Spa Baths - Are your standards high enough?

EVERY SWIMMER’S RIGHT

Swimming in pool water should be a healthy exercise. A clear, sparkling swimming pool without unpleasant smell or taste is the right of every swimmer and should be the objective of every manager and pool operator. Achieving this in practice can be fraught with difficulty. A multitude of physical, chemical and bacteriological states change constantly in a busy swimming pool.

GES Ltd has a team of ISRM Approved consultants

Critical factors for change:

Human - Skin, throat & faecal bacteria, body oils, cosmetics, ammonia, & nitrogenous matter from sweat & urine, dirt, food, saliva & open infections.

Environmental - Source water quality, physical & chemical composition of pool water, air & water temperatures, air quality & pollution, algae & fungi, gases formed from chemical reactions, humidity, sunlight & evaporation.

Design, Construction & Operation - Pool bather capacity, loading, hydraulics, turnover, chemical conditioning, construction materials, disinfectants, coagulants, filtration, surface water draw off, filter cleansing, dilution, automatic control, testing & interpretation

Swimming Pools May Pose Health Hazard

Taking a dip in your swimming pool could prove harmful to your customer’s health. Over half of the 61 pools sampled in a recent survey commissioned by “Which?” were found to fall below acceptable standards. Nine of the swimming pools sampled were deemed to be potentially serious.

The survey was conducted by members of ISRAM (Institute of sports and recreation). They took samples from swimming pools around England & Wales, which were then analysed for bacteria and disinfectant level.

Spa baths were found to be considerably worse than swimming pools. Seven of the twenty one spa baths tested fell below acceptable standards.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (a bacteria which can cause skin and ear infections, nausea, vomiting and fever) was found in one of the spa baths sampled.

Fifty people fell ill as a result of this bug last year. A London health spa was found to be the source. The warm water coupled with the small volume of water in relation to the number of bathers provides an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Most of the contamination in pools is as a result of sweat, urine, faeces and mucus.

The Responsibility of the Pool Operator

“The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, places responsibility on the POOL OPERATOR to conduct their undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that he/she does not expose any person/s to risks to their health or safety.

More specifically The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1994 (COSHH) requires that a suitable & sufficient assessment of all work which is liable to expose employees or other persons to substances which are hazardous to health, including harmful micro - organisms, must be undertaken.

As such the operator of a swimming pool has a legal obligation to undertake an assessment regarding exposure to possible micro - organisms. It should be ensured that such exposure is either prevented or, where this is not reasonably practicable to do, adequately controlled.

Therefore in order for a pool operator to determine firstly, whether his/her pool is safe and without risks to the health of any person/s with regards to the exposure to micro - organisms and secondly, that he/she has adequately controlled exposure under COSHH, it must be ensured that adequate disinfection of he pool has occurred. In order to establish this bacteriological sampling is required.

The responsibility for ensuring compliance with health and safety legislation at swimming pools falls to either the HSE or the Environmental Health Departments depending upon the main activity of the premises. Pools in educational establishments or pools controlled by a Local Authority are enforced by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). Private pools, for example those in hotels are the responsibility of Environmental Health Departments (EHDs). However Environmental Health Officers have right of entry into all pools under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and therefore may undertake bacterial sampling if they deem it necessary. In addition, Environmental Health Officers may have agreed to undertake bacterial sampling on a random basis. However such sampling is no substitute for an established routine sampling programme which is undertaken by the pool operator.

Sampling should be undertaken monthly as a constant check to ensure the bacteriological quality of a well run pool with the correct disinfection levels and pH value. More frequent samples are necessary where a deterioration in water quality occurs."

The above information has been taken from “The ISRM’s National Pool Plant Operators Certificate” literature.

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