Swimming pools

Swimming pool water is the potential recipient of a wide range of pathogenic micro-organisms. These may be delivered by a variety of routes including direct excretion by bathers, transport on the body, or growth within the filter bed. Without positive steps to inhibit the viability of these organisms the swimming pool would become a major health hazard. In order to maintain effective control of disease causing organisms in the swimming pool it is necessary to appreciate the sources of potential contamination, the types of pathogenic organism, the routes of infection and the mechanisms of disinfection. It is also important to appreciate that the steps taken to reduce the potential for disease transmission may have the potential to adversely affect the swimming environment.

The use of chlorine dioxide reduces the health risk of microbial pollutions in water and at the same time decreases the risk of chemical pollutions and by-products. XzioX Chlorine dioxide is a more effective disinfectant than chlorine and NaClo, causing the required concentration to kill microorganisms to be much lower. The required contact time is also very low. The advantages of XzioX chlorine dioxide are that it can be used at low concentrations to disinfect water, that it hardly reacts with organic matter, and that little disinfection by-products are formed. The use of chlorine dioxide instead of chlorine prevents the formation of harmful halogenated disinfection by-products, for example trihalomethanes and halogenated acidic acids. Chlorine dioxide does not react with ammonia nitrogen, amines or other oxidizable organic matter. Chlorine dioxide removes substances that can form trihalomethanes and improves coagulation. It does not oxidize bromide into bromine. When bromide containing water is treated with chlorine or ozone, bromide is oxidized into bromine and hypobromous acid. After that these react with organic material to form brominated disinfection by-products.