In Reply to: Pool and spa cleanliness posted by drdaz on Tuesday, 19. September 2006 at 14:47 Bali Time:
I have a home pool. When I first moved in, the pool appeared to be sparkling clean, but I got a professional pool maintenance man to come and check it for me. He told me it was clean and safe. I asked him for some advice to keep it that way, with minimum chemical use. This is the advice I got.
Don't let anyone use it without first showering thoroughly.
Don't let anyone swim in their street clothes or underclothes, or bathers that they have been wearing for a while virtually as street clothes.
Don't let a dog anywhere near the pool.
He told me that if I did this, I could keep the chlorine level [it's a salt water pool] at the lower level of safe. This way, there would be no chlorine smell in the air, or on skin or bathers.
The cleanliness of a pool depends not only on the level of maintenance, but also on the habits of the users. We have seen accounts on BTF of people sitting at the pool bar and drinking for hours, but never going to the toilet to urinate. Also accounts of one particular hotel pool where condoms were found after some late night frolicking.
Some years ago, a large council owned pool in Wellington, NZ had to be closed down for a while for health reasons. [Not having a go at Kiwis, I got this account from a Kiwi friend.] The situation was thought to have been caused by people not showering before using the pool.