Chlorine: What’s Behind Your Kid’s Red Eyes

Your teenager wants to work as a lifeguard at the fitness center, and you’ve signed up your youngest for swim lessons there. So you check out the indoor pool and take in the overpowering smell of chlorine. Can that be healthy?

Healthy is a relative term. Chlorine is a sanitizing agent. Given all the bodies—and the accompanying germs, dirt and body fluids—that share the water in a public pool in a day, you can’t knock sanitation. The problem is that when chlorine mixes with organic matter, such as the leaves that might fall into a backyard pool, or the urine from a kid who thinks it’s OK to use a pool as a potty, it produces chloramines, including nitrogen trichloride.

Such chemical compounds are to blame for skin and eye irritation and according to a 2003 Occupational and Environmental Medicine study, they increase the risk of asthma (the same chemical reaction that causes eye inflammation also inflames the lung tissue). Some, such as chloroform, are considered carcinogens. So precautions are in order.

The chlorine-produced gases are strongest right above the water level, so a competitive swimmer would be inhaling more of them than, say, a lifeguard high up on a chair or a child taking a 30-minute lesson. However, keep in mind that children breathe more air relative to their body size than adults do. Good ventilation is key; opt for an outdoor pool if possible, especially if your child is prone to asthma or if the indoor pool you’re considering is in a room without a high ceiling or with poor ventilation.

And please, make sure your child uses the potty, not the pool. If you think it’s OK as long as your child is the only one doing it, keep in mind that that toxic reaction of organic matter and chlorine is happening closest to the source: Your precious little one. And the more that stuff happens, the more chlorine is needed to combat it.

We’re not trying to scare you out of the pool. We all want our children to know how to swim for safety reasons if nothing else, and if your kid enjoys swimming, the risk of inhaling a bit of chlorine over a lifetime shouldn’t outweigh the health benefits of such physical activity. Use common sense: If the smell is overpowering or if your child comes out of the pool with a cough or irritated eyes, mention it to the people in charge so they can check the chlorine levels. You’ll be doing everyone a favor.

By Heather L. Jones, Care2 Green Living contributing writer

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

ii q.

2:15PM PDT on May 14, 2012

send a green star

Teresa W.

4:09AM PDT on May 14, 2012

OK, but is it better to catch an infection?

Joe R.

3:20PM PDT on May 11, 2012

I was going to suggest our lakes and rivers as an alternative, but then again it's hard to find one that we haven't already polluted.

Faith B.

12:28PM PDT on May 11, 2012

thanks for sharing!

KS G.

12:57AM PDT on Mar 19, 2011

Thanks for the article.

Adam K.

9:16PM PDT on Nov 1, 2010

Swimming pools will cure malaria or pneumonia and all other one-celled human pathogens in the same way that they will completely eliminate an algae bloom. Anyone who has ever poured a gallon of pool chlorine into a pool with an algae bloom and watched what happened could deduce this.

Carolyn P.

7:33AM PDT on Sep 3, 2010

Think it would be good if people were also made to wash/shower before getting into the pool, that might then reduce the amount of chlorine needed to keep the water healthy. But is there no kinder alternative to chlorine?

Past Member .

10:29AM PDT on Aug 26, 2010

Very interesting article, but the photo with the kid in the water takes the cake. Spelling Games

Marya G.

2:34PM PDT on Jul 16, 2008

I agree that the risk of inhaling chlorine shouldn't outweigh the health benefits of swimming for older kids and adults, but I think infants are a different story.

There was a study in Sweden proving a link between infants exposed to indoor swimming pools and increased rates of asthma (study referenced in http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1331998).

Here's my rule of thumb (ok - I got this rule of thumb from my mother who has worked with pharmaceutical clinical trials for 30+ years and read the original Swedish study) -- if you can smell the chlorine, it's too much for a baby under 2. If you want to teach your infant to swim, make sure it's in an outdoor pool, preferably a home pool so the chlorine levels are lower.