Every summer, hundreds of thousands of people flock to their neighborhood pools and water parks seeking relief from the South’s heat and humidity.
What most don’t consider is that they are risking their health.
South Carolina has about 6,000 public swimming pools that are opened seasonally, according to Robert Yanity, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. DHEC issues annual operating permits for those pools and performs routine surprise inspections throughout the summer.
Unlike with food inspections, DHEC does not maintain an online database of pool regulation violators. DHEC conducts the following three tests on public swimming pools: chlorine/bromine content, pH levels and cyanuric acid levels.
“If all three of these chemistry measurements are within the approved range, the pool should have the ability to disinfect waste and other bacteriological hazards that may pose a risk to swimmers,” Yanity said.
That's what happens most of the time.
“I have not heard of any water-borne illnesses around here that have been confirmed,” said Ryan Smith, crew chief at James Island County Park’s Splash Zone and a certified pool operator. “There is a lot of misinformation. Sometimes people will say, ‘I got sick at the pool,’ but if the pool chemistry says no, facts are facts. It’s not possible.”
The bacteria and parasites that live in the water are usually put there by the swimmers themselves.
One in five Americans admit to urinating in the pool, according to a 2012 survey conducted by the Water Quality and Health Council. And as folks are often quick to point out, that's the people who admit it.
“No amount of social shaming will make people stop peeing in pools,” said Sam Goodson, who operates a pool in Briarwood neighborhood near Columbia. “Even Olympic swimmers have admitted to it. Just imagine the number of people who do it and don’t admit it.”
In addition, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the average swimmer contributes at least 0.14 grams of fecal matter to pool water.
Urine and fecal matter — plus sweat, sunscreen and other lotion — can all use up the chlorine that would otherwise kill germs in chemically treated pools, Goodson said.
“Sometimes a pool might look like it has a ring around it, like a bathtub ring,” he said. “That’s all that lotion and other stuff that people put on, and then they dive in and it comes off in the water.”
When people swallow pool water, they can get Recreational Water Illnesses, a wide variety of skin, ear, respiratory, eye and gastrointestinal infections. The most common RWI is diarrhea, which is caused by germs like E. coli and the parasite cryptosporidium.
In May, the CDC issued a press release warning that crypto outbreaks doubled in the United States between 2014 and 2016, from 16 to 32 cases.
Swallowing just a mouthful of water contaminated with crypto can make otherwise healthy people sick for up to three weeks with watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea or vomiting, and can lead to dehydration.
"Just don't do it," Goodson said. "Keep your mouth closed. Don't spit water on your friend. It's not worth the risk."
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