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1 in 5 Americans admit to peeing in the pool

Posted by David Rockwell on May 1, 2011 at 8:16pm in Pool Service Topics

Watershapes Magazine just reported on this survey from livescience.com

http://www.livescience.com/3603-1-5-americans-admits-peeing-pool.html

 

47% of those surveyed admitted to at least one or more behaviors that contribute to an unhealthy pool.

 

20% of those who responded admitted to urinating in a swimming pool. I bet 75% were lying...

 

What is worse, 35% say they don't shower before swimming, again, I'd bet that the real figure nationally is MUCH higher.

 

63% were unaware of illnesses associated with swallowing, breathing, or skin contact with contaminated pool water. How often do we see people jump into a gray, cloudy pool, filled with other swimmers without a second thought?

 

23% gave no consideration to the frequency of cleaning & chemical treatment of pool water, and only 16% think aboutchlorine levels needed to maintain the water.

 

In reality, they only polled 1,000 people, but I believe it accurately represents the vast majority of casual pool users.

 

As an industry, we are doing everything we can to educate people about drowning, entrapment & other injury dangers, but I think we are lagging WAY behind when it comes to educating the public on this issue. It hurts just as much to see your child in a hospital bed suffering from e. coli or crypto, as it does to see them suffer from an injury.

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Replies

  • Denise Migliaccio October 24, 2011 at 11:55am
    Over this past summer, I was having a conversation with one of our retail store customers, who was in on Monday to pick up some shock after a big pool party. The pool party was 5 hours,,,, 30 kids,,,, 5 cases of soda,,,, and no one used the bathroom. Enough said.
  • David C Wilkin August 6, 2011 at 10:22am
    Similar to those of us who dive and wear wet suits, there are people that pee in their wet suits and those that lie about it.
  • Scott Tarr June 1, 2011 at 6:48pm
    What's a little pee among friends...
  • Richard A. Falk May 2, 2011 at 1:57pm
    For a humorous personal account of this problem, read this thread.  Fortunately, in a residential pool, one person peeing isn't a big deal, but in a commercial/public pool with the percentages in that survey, it's a much bigger issue.
  • Al Neumann May 2, 2011 at 10:30am

    David,

    Here is a link and an email I send out to all my customers who have swim teams, as some of the change needs to start with them.

    Hey guys,
    I got an email this morning, and thought it was important enough to pass on to everyone . Rather than just talk about it, I'm forwarding the entire email as I got it. I found it to be interesting, kind of funny, and kind of sad. This is all about some preventable chloramine issues, and  the mindset of some competitive swimmers, who spend countless hours in the pool, who you would think would know better... but then, maybe not. Think about it, . Our kids are smart,and it doesn't take them long to figure out some of the tricks, whether learned from their peers, or on there own,  that peeing in the pool is a shortcut they can get away with in their goal to please their coaches.  The mindset of our competitive swimmers is driven by their coaches, and this competitiveness starts young, and is constantly, inadvertently, and silently re-enforced by the expectation to push through the trials of hard training.
     
    Knowing what we know now about chloramines, it's kind of a Catch 22. Maybe a change is needed, and that change may have to start with us, the professionals who train our kids from the get-go. . We all know that the #1 control measure in chloramine prevention starts with the hygiene of our patrons, but those patrons just aren't the little kids, or the sweaty patrons not taking soapy showers, .or any of the other vast array of causes we can come up with.  It's not just everyone else's fault, it's our fault too. A change is needed, and this is one area, where this change may have to start with us.
     
     
    Feel free to pass this on to your aquatic teams, or to anyone else you wish to.
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