Staying healthy at the pool
BRADLEY WAKOFF / bwakoff@greeleytribune.com
Emma Schmautz
August 8, 2006
Michelle Harper, 36, of Greeley was 5 when she began spending Colorado's hot summer days swimming at Greeley's Centennial Pool.
Now, 31 years later, Centennial pool lost its high dive but gained a giant green slide and expanded to include a larger pool and children's splash area.
Every summer, Harper still visits the pool, now with her 9-year-old daughter, Sarah Harper, in tow.
Swimming is the most popular exercise activity in the United States for children and the second most popular for adults reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Every year, U.S. residents make an estimated 360 million visits to recreational water areas, according to the CDC.
The risk for contracting a recreational water illness such as giardia or shigella is low, but every summer, a small number of people bring home more than just a sunburn from their day in the water.
In the past six years, the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment has never received a complaint about a pool-water illness.
But Lori Siedelman, who recently left her position as the health department's pool inspector, said it is important to always take precautions and be vigilant.
Siedelman said that if people do develop symptoms such as abdominal pains, fever or diarrhea, they are more likely to attribute the illness to food poisoning rather than bacteria from contaminated water.
"They won't think swimming pool, they'll think where did I eat last," Siedelman said.
Last year, 5,000 people in the U.S. contracted a recreational water illness, according to the CDC.
Siedelman said Greeley's own water bacteria scare in July 2001, when a 20-year-old fountain on 8th Street Plaza in downtown Greeley infected 13 people with shigella, serves as a reminder of what can happen if people come in contact with even a small quantity of contaminated water.
Unlike the former downtown fountain, Greeley's city pools and water recreation areas are regulated with high-tech computerized filtration systems.
"Water chemistry is a very detailed thing," said Greeley's recreation program manager Phil Moya. "Water can change in minutes. If you don't stay on top of it, there can be problems."
Siedelman said the health department has not received any valid complaints about Greeley's city pools and only a few complaints about private pools in Weld County.
The only closures in the past year by the health department occurred with hotel and health club pools.
Greeley's Holiday Inn Express participates in the licensing program and was closed once last year for having no chlorine in its pool or spa. The hotel also has been closed twice since 2003 for low chlorine and pH and incorrect temperatures.
Holiday Inn Express manager Debby Ford did not return phone messages for comment.
Last year, Greeley Inn's pool was closed once for cloudy water, and a pool at Work Out West Fitness and Tennis also was closed once for low chlorine.
Greeley city pools are not licensed with the health department because their filtration systems are sophisticated enough to take care of their own tests, Moya said. Four times a day, the city pools' filtration systems conduct the same tests the health department does twice a year in their inspection program, he said.
Water pH test strips and a lifeguard pouring chlorine into the water are a thing of the past because Greeley's pools that are computer monitored. The machines automatically adjust the chemicals if the levels become even slightly unbalanced.
Last year, Evans' Municipal pool also installed an automated chemical feeder so lifeguards and pool managers no longer need to handle potentially dangerous chemicals.
Dan Maples, Evans' recreation supervisor, said he continues to participate in the health department's voluntary inspection program because it is something his pool has always done.
Harper said health concerns never cross her mind when she and her daughter swim at their favorite watering hole in Greeley.
"I'm not worried about that," Harper said. "I think they take good care of the pool."
Common sense tips
- Do not swim if you have diarrhea, and do not let young children who are sick swim.
- Avoid swallowing pool water.
- Take a shower before swimming, and wash your hands after using the toilet or changing diapers.
- Take children on bathroom breaks and check diapers often.
- Change diapers in a bathroom and not beside the pool.
- Bathe young children thoroughly with soap and water before swimming
