Chlorine Tablets Info

In recent years, there have been numerous scare stories linking the use of chlorine and chlorine tablets in swimming pools to a long list of ailments including asthma, bladder cancer, miscarriages and stillbirths. This raises the question, should swimming pool owners take a serious look at the chlorine alternatives available?

With the use of chlorine so prevalent and entrenched in the industry, any alternative would have to seriously prove itself as being much more beneficial to people’s health. It would also have to be economically viable and proven to be as effective in de-sanitising water as chlorine.

photo credit: Clask Magazin-e

Personally speaking, this author uses a filtering system for drinking water at home and can genuinely tell a marked difference between filtered and non-filtered tap water. The non-filtered water has a distinct chlorine smell to it whereas the filtered water is completely odourless, and hence more pleasant to drink. The question is, is it more beneficial to my health to drink the filtered water. I certainly prefer to drink the filtered water and on gut feeling, I ‘m sure that it’s much better for me and my family to drink filtered water.

With reference to the dangers of chlorine in swimming pools, I distinctly remember returning from swim club on a Thursday night with my eyes stinging for a couple of hours after a swim. Whatever it was they did, I can only presume that either the system wasn’t working properly at that time, they had got their chlorine levels wrong, or there was a dangerous imbalance in the pool’s ph levels at this time. Anyway, my eyes were fine the next morning and it didn’t bother me again. This example does raise the question however, what would this sort of exposure to someone who was say, a professional swimmer spending hours on end in the swimming pool?

The most credible alternative to chlorine is ozone. The current unpopularity of ozone use in swimming pools in the US is manly due to the unsuccessful early applications of the technique ten to fifteen years ago. American pools, having been geared to using the chlorine system of disinfecting, were not suited to the ozone system and therefore, the practice proved not only ineffective, but also very expensive. There is no doubt that ozone is a cleaner, safer and more environmentally friendly method, but engineers, architects and swimming pool owners will need to crack their heads together and develop a method for delivering this solution.

No comments »

The element chlorine has the atomic number 17 and appears in the periodic table between Sulfur and Argon. Chlorine was first discovered in the sixteenth century and is today one of the most widely used chemicals in both residential and industrial settings around the world. Chlorine is the most widely used method of disinfecting swimming pools in the world today, although there are other, less popular methods available on the market.

Chlorine’s natural form is a yellowish gas. Chlorine is a hazardous chemical to deal with and must be handled with caution at all times. In the specific application of being used for the cleansing of swimming pool water, chlorine usually comes in tablet or granulated form. The manufacturer will always provide very detailed instructions on how to use said chlorine tablets and these must be followed to the letter.

photo credit: rharrison

Chlorine gas has previously been used in 20th century warfare, most notoriously in the trenches of the First World War. The use of chlorine gas in warfare was pioneered by a German scientist named Fritz Haber of Berlin’s Keiser Wilhelm Institute and was first used by German forces in 1915 . It was subsequently used by both sides before being replaced by the more lethal mustard gas. Chlorine gas has also been used in conflicts in Iraq in the form of chlorine bombs and caused horrendous casualties.

Some adverse health effects of chlorine gas include coughing, vomiting and aggrivation to the respiratory system and eyes. Chlorine’s most devastating feature is that it can change to hydrochloric acid when coming into contact with water, which is obviously why it causes so much damage when breathed in.

It should be stressed however, that when used in controlled conditions, chlorine and chlorine tablets represent a robust and cost-efficient method of disinfecting swimming pools, spas and such like and the benefits far outweigh the small risks associated.

No comments »