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Wasatch County
Heber, Midway and Wasatch County

Survey Shows Half Of Adults Pee In Pools

CDC.gov

A Healthy Pools survey was conducted by the Water Quality & Health Council, a group of advisors to the chlorine industry trade association.  It canvassed 3100 people and identified that 40 percent of the respondents admit to having peed in a pool while bathing.

In Wasatch County, all public and commercial pools are monitored by the health department. They do yearly random inspections of the equipment and take monthly pool water samples for evaluation.
Dwight Hill is the Environmental Health Director and Deputy Health Officer for Wasatch County.  He says there are two to 300 pools and hot tubs his team samples every month.

“Well, it involves the chemistry like we would check on the monthly basis anyway. We do that and we make sure the equipment is operating as it should be and that we’re getting the right sanitizer levels in the pool that will make the water safe for people to bathe.

Almost twenty-five percent of the survey respondents entered a pool within one hour of having diarrhea and nearly half of those surveyed said they never showered beforehand.

“The most concerning is a fecal accident. That is something that we obviously have to deal with. And, we have to a few times, not too many, but they have to close down and there’s certain protocols. They have to super chlorinate basically and that would be more than what we would normally allow in a pool. Fecal contamination is the one that you know, is probably going to make you sick.”

Hall says the health department can’t monitor if patrons are taking a shower before entering a pool, but they’re supposed to. The survey shows almost half use a pool to cleanse after working out or doing yard work.

“People will go into those places with different quality of personal hygiene. But, each pool is supposed to have showers where they’re supposed to take a cleansing shower before they enter. You know, as far as urination in the pool, that’s probably the least of the problem because you know the chemicals will definitely take care of that, that is normally in the pool."

Hall says they’ll shut down a pool for repetitive bad samples. He says the pool will remain closed until two random samples are taken over the next week.

“We just did one today and we had one that has had repetitive bad samples on a monthly sampling and actually the last one had e coli in it so we had to go out and close it.”

Hall says there are strict protocols for fecal accidents. Eliminate the fecal matter, super chlorinate the water to kill any bacteria and turnover the water a couple of times in the pool.

Public Health experts say don’t pee in the pool. Shower for at least one minute before entering because that will wash off most sweat, dirt, personal care products and bacteria. Keep kids in diapers out of the pool. Stay out of the pool if you have diarrhea and don’t drink the pool water.
 
 

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