Pools and lakes are full of germs that can make you sick. Some of the common issues you can get from swimming in a lake or pool are diarrhea, skin rashes, respiratory illness and swimmers ear. People typically contract one of these illnesses when they accidentally ingest contaminated water.
Can you get sick by swimming in public pools? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says outbreaks of a parasitic infection called cryptosporidia are being reported more frequently. The bacteria, which are hard to eradicate with standard levels of chlorine, can cause many symptoms, including watery diarrhea.
Coli isn't just foodborne — you can get it from swimming, too. Whether it's from the pool or an ill-fated burrito, any of the bacterial species known as E. Coli can make you sick with diarrhea, cramps, and vomiting 3 to 4 days after exposure. Although most people get better within a week or so, E.
And stomach bugs are easily passed around. During this most wonderful time of year, perfect pool weather, be careful of pool infections. Doctors say there's parasites, bacteria, intestinal viruses, all that and more in swimming pools. Most of the time, those can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Chlorine, either solid or liquid, is a pesticide used in pools to destroy germs, including those from feces, urine, saliva and other substances. But excessive exposure to chlorine can cause sickness and injuries, including rashes, coughing, nose or throat pain, eye irritation and bouts of asthma, health experts warn.
The germs that cause recreational water illnesses (RWIs) can be spread when swallowing water that has been contaminated with fecal matter (poop). How? If someone has diarrhea, that person can easily contaminate an entire aquatic venue. The water is shared by all swimmers.
Germs like crypto, E. coli, and giardia are spread in public pools where chlorine and pH levels are too low. Symptoms of all three illnesses include diarrhea, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, dehydration, and stomach cramps.
Cryptosporidium is a parasite that causes the diarrheal illness cryptosporidiosis. Both the germ and the disease are commonly referred to as "Crypto." Cryptosporidium is just one of the many germs that can live and spread in swimming pool water.
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are another culprit of swimming pool season. A UTI occurs when bacteria travels up the urethra and travels through the urine into the bladder. The offending bacteria can come from icky pool water, not showering after, or from sitting around in a damp bathing suit.
Swimmers can also get gastroenteritis from other bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Pseudomonas causes an itchy rash over most of the body with bumps or blisters. It can also cause a sore throat, nose, eyes or ears. The rash will usually go away on its own.
SIPE is a type of immersion pulmonary oedema (IPE) that occurs when fluid accumulates in the lungs in the absence of water aspiration during surface or underwater swimming, causing acute shortness of breath and a cough productive of blood-tinged sputum [2]. IPE may affect people with no underlying health problems.
If you have red eyes, an irritated throat, or a cough after swimming in a pool, it's probably caused by something called chloramines. These form when a chemical used to disinfect the pool mixes with things people bring into it: urine, feces, sweat, and dead skin.
This chlorine concentration can be a problem. “If an indoor pool isn't regulated well, swimmers can begin to see symptoms of tracheobronchitis, such as coughing or maybe some wheezing,” she says. “There might be some burning in your throat.”
So if you decide to go in the pool, or you swim in the diluted urine of someone else, it's not harmful. Urine isn't sterile, but this isn't necessarily a problem. Similar to the surface of the skin and other areas of the body, your bladder contains a mix of healthy bacteria called the microbiome.
When this urine comes into contact with chlorine, it creates chloramines, which is what's giving off the odor. When your eyes burn while swimming, that's another sign of trouble. Cyanogen chloride is a chemical created when someone pees in a pool. It's a toxic chemical that causes your eyes to burn.
The most common illness associated with swimming in water polluted by sewage is gastroenteritis. It occurs in a variety of forms that can have one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, stomachache, diarrhea, headache or fever.
Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio.
The truth is that while urine isn't as clean and pure as some people think it is, most of the time it's not likely to cause health problems if you occasionally opt for the shower drain instead of the toilet bowl.
The pre-swim shower helps minimize the irritating, smelly substances formed in pool water when impurities introduced on the bodies of swimmers combine with chlorine. Many people identify that smell as the smell of chlorine.
Nearly 100% of elite competitive swimmers pee in the pool. Regularly. Some deny it, some proudly embrace it, but everyone does.
While this may seem merely unappealing, a 2014 study suggested that urine can actually combine with the chlorine disinfectant in swimming pool water to make potentially harmful chemicals. The researchers recommend that all swimmers avoid urinating in swimming pools to prevent these chemicals from forming.
How to address urine in swimming pools. Urine is sterile, so there should be nothing for chlorine to "kill". Instead, urine must be oxidized. One chemical in urine is particularly difficult to oxidize: urea, or uric acid.
In a residential pool (20-by-40-foot, five-feet deep), that would translate to about two gallons of pee. It's only about one-hundredth of a percent, but any urine in a swimming pool can be a health concern for some people, not to mention that smell that never quite goes away.
Swimming induced pulmonary edema (SIPE), also known as immersion pulmonary edema, occurs when fluids from the blood leak abnormally from the small vessels of the lung (pulmonary capillaries) into the airspaces (alveoli). SIPE usually occurs during exertion in conditions of water immersion, such as swimming and diving.