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WATER INGESTION DURING SWIMMING ACTIVITIES IN A POOL: A PILOT STUDY
Citation:
DUFOUR, A. P., O. M. EVANS, AND T. D. BEHYMER. WATER INGESTION DURING SWIMMING ACTIVITIES IN A POOL: A PILOT STUDY. JOURNAL OF WATER AND HEALTH. IWA Publishing, London, Uk, 4(4):425-430, (2006).
Impact/Purpose:
The objective of this task is to determine the amount of water ingested by a broad age range of swimmers during swimming activities.
Description:
Chloroisocyanurates are commonly added to outdoor swimming pools to stabilize chlorine disinfectants. The chloroisocyanurates decompose slowly to release chlorine and cyanuric acid. Studies conducted to determine if the chloroisocyanurates might be toxic to swimmers showed that they were not and that ingested cyanuric acid passed through the body unmetabolized. This fact was used to determine the amount of water swallowed during swimming activity. Fifty-three recreational swimmers, using a community swimming pool disinfected with cyanuric acid stabilized chlorine, participated in the study. The participants did not swim on the day before or after the test swim. The swimmers were asked to actively swim for at least 45 minutes and to collect their urine for the next 24 hours. Cyanuric acid was measured in pool water using high performance liquid chromatography and porous graphitic carbon columns with UV detection. The urine sample assay required a clean-up procedure to remove urinary proteins and interfering substances. Results of the study indicate that non-adults ingest about twice as much water as adults during swimming activity. The average amount of water swallowed by non-adults and adults was 37 ml and 16 ml, respectively. The designater and human urine were effective for measuring the volume of water swallowed during swimming activity.