After reading an article about unhealthy conditions in public swimming pools based on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention review, I contacted the CDC to investigate further…

Dear Disease Controllers & Preventers:

First, I’d like to congratulate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for doing such a fine job. With all the diseases you’re exposed to, it’s amazing everyone in your entire organization isn’t calling in sick everyday!

I read a South Florida Sun Sentinel article that sited a report in which Federal health officials said: “One in eight public swimming pools inspected in Florida and 12 other states in 2008 had problems serious enough to warrant closing them on the spot.” This issue sounds much more dangerous than discovering an occasional Baby Ruth bar floating around in the water. Why is this happening? How come the public is first hearing about 2008 pools in 2010? No wonder the results are bad — the pool water is over two years old! Is it possible your inspectors are spending too much time treading water?

More importantly, what is the CDC doing to make the proprietors of these polluted pools pay? What are the fines? If so many pools are being shut down on the spot, the penalties obviously aren’t stiff enough! Have you considered forcing the responsible parties to drink the putrid pool water instead? I’ll bet that would get them to make sure a pool company checks the chlorine and pH levels more frequently. And why is Florida such a problem area? Is it because in addition to kids, we also have so many elderly people wearing diapers that don’t hold up underwater?

I understand the CDC is urging people to use test strips to check pool water quality. That’s a problem for me because I’m not very handy. In fact, I can’t even get teeth whitening strips to stay on straight and gave up out of fear that I’d be whitening my gums and tongue. Besides, if I’m going to avoid swimming in infection-infested waters, I want the best testing equipment on the market. How much are the kits your inspectors use? Are they for sale in the CDC gift shop? What should someone do if the pool water test fails — make a citizen’s arrest and haul the offender to your centers in Atlanta along with a sample of the vile water in a vial? What advice can the CDC provide to protect people before attending their next pool party?

Swimming in fear in Florida,
“Me”

The CDC-INFO National Contact Center, Division of Community Engagement, Office of the Associate Director for Communication, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention responded with:

Thank you for your submission to CDC-INFO.

Your comments on swimming pool safety have been forwarded to the appropriate CDC office for their information. They will contact you directly if they have any additional questions.

For additional information on Healthy Swimming/Recreational Water please visit the CDC website http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/. CDC’s Healthy Swimming program provides information for the public and health professionals (for example, outbreak response toolkits and the Model Aquatic Health Code) on a variety of subjects.

Thank you for contacting CDC. For Future inquiries, please contact the CDC-INFO National Contact Center at 1-800-CDC-INFO, email cdcinfo@cdc.gov or visit http://www.cdc.gov if you have any additional questions.

Final Thoughts: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t contacted me with any additional questions. That’s probably best because they’re the experts and my knowledge of pool water is basically limited to knowing that it’s in a pool.

While the CDC didn’t provide many specific answers to my questions, I have to assume that they’re just knee deep in other things. Even still, the link they provided to their website leads to very helpful information about Healthy Swimming/Recreational Water. You will also find more details about Violations Identified from Routine Swimming Pool Inspections — Selected States and Counties, United States, 2008.

If you run into public health or disease control and prevention issues, look to the CDC. However, if you have health concerns about any service or product — whether it is on land, in the air, or involves water — go public with it and contact a responsible organization or Write The Company.