What bathers put into a pool: A critical review of body fluids and a body fluid analog

Abstract

Bathers add inorganic and organic materials to pool water primarily via sweat and urine but also via sunscreens and cosmetics. The organic nitrogen (organic-N) compounds react with chlorine to form organic chloramines that have no biocidal effectiveness, volatile inorganic chloramines, and other oxidation products that create high combined chlorine measurements and chlorinous odors. Recent research on the reactions of free available chlorine (FAC) with organic-N components of body fluids and models of other organic-N compounds likely to be present in pool water is reviewed. One recipe for a body fluid analog (BFA) was found in model pool studies to reproduce a field-observed median chlorine demand of 5.5 g/standard bather and to contain a reduced nitrogen mass per average bather within the ranges of published estimates. Guidelines for the combined chlorine measurement are routinely exceeded in operating pools and in model pool studies even at modest bather loads simulated using the BFA recipe. © 2014 Human Kinetics, Inc.