How To Tell if a Swimming Pool Is Actually Clean or Not

I recently wrote about how a study found that New York’s public pools provide the city’s residents with a place to cool off during the hot summer months, while occasionally being disgusting cesspools of poop and pee.

But it’s not just New York City’s pools. This goes for all pubic pools.

Writing in The Conversation, Lisa Cuchara, a professor of biomedical science at Quinnipiac University, says that public pools, and by extension, pretty much all pools, are a diluted soup of sweat, sunscreen, and disconcertingly vague “bodily substances.”

The short version of her conclusion after all of that deterring is, and I’m paraphrasing here, “so what?” With some basic common-sense hygiene protocols, you don’t have to worry about a public pool giving you diarrhea that you can then contribute right back into the public pool.

She argues that swimming is beneficial in every way that something can be beneficial. It’s good for your body, your mental health, and it’s an excellent social lubricant. Yes, from 2015 to 2019, there were over 200 pool-related outbreaks that affected more than 3,600 people in the United States, according to the CDC.

Bad News. Almost All Swimming Pools Are Gross.

But most of those infections were mild. At the same time, yes, others caused people to combust internally. But it’s such a relatively small number of illnesses that your chances of getting sick are low.

The one microbial bad guy you’ve got to look out for is Cryptosporidium, or crypto for short. It’s a parasite with a thick outer shell that allows it to survive in chlorinated water for up to 10 days. It, of course, spreads via fecal matter.

That strong chlorine smell that makes you feel like you’re well within a protective barrier where diarrhea-causing particles can’t hurt you? That’s a false sense of security. That pungent smell that reminds you of the cleansing powers of chlorine is a chemical byproduct of chlorine reacting with urine and sweat.

A properly maintained pool should have no odor at all. If your eyes are burning from chlorine fumes, you’re probably swimming in a pool brimming with pee, and that’s probably a good sign that you should get the hell out of there. You may not have cleaned your shower in months, but it’s probably safer than taking a dip in that pool.

Be a decent human being who takes other people’s livelihoods into account, and you should be okay.

Still, none of this is intended to be fear-mongering. Take a dip in a public pool—do it responsibly. To ensure you’re not contributing to the bubbling cauldron of fecal matter, make sure to shower before swimming, scrubbing off anything that could potentially harm anyone else.

For God’s sake, do not go into a public pool on a day you’ve had diarrhea or if you currently have any open wounds. Please, please do not swallow the water, which seems impossible, but do your best.

And if you’ve got to change a baby’s dirty diaper, maybe don’t do it anywhere near the pool. Consider showering again when you’re all done, and be sure to dry your ears thoroughly to avoid swimmer’s ear as much as possible.