Personal Injury Law

It happens

It's nearly summer time, and the living is easy. Maybe not that easy, considering the mudslides and wildfires--but summer is still on its way. In honor of the season, I am going to digress for a moment from fighting the bigger battles, and mention something which was brought up to me in an email. A reader sent me news that her child had developed diarrhea and otitis media as a result of swimming in a Calabasas pool. Now, bear in mind that public pools are always a great place to exchange germs and bacteria. I don't know how many pool related ear-aches and cases of pink-eye we all had growing up, but it was a lot.

Dirty pools are a haven for waterborne pathogens, bacteria, parasites, protozoa and viruses. A chlorine resistant parasite called Cryptosporidium is a particular problem along with Amoebic meningoencephalitis, Giardia, E. coli O157:H7 (E. coli), and Shigella. This is by no means a comprehensive list of the communicable nasties that can live in pools.

The problem is not just that the pool may be inadequately filtered and/or chlorinated. It is also that each individual who goes into the water brings his or her own collection of bacteria. This is not a new development. Neither is it new that 20 billion disposable diapers are sent to landfills annually. That the two issues converge in a relatively new development: swimmer diapers, is.

It bears thinking about that disposable diapers are not exactly sanitary in aquatic conditions and these new swimmer's diapers are already developing a reputation as a public health issue. Even if they do manage to contain the visible fecal matter (and there's no guarantee that they'll do that) there's no way they can contain all the bacteria that's in the feces, and all of the urine that the diapers contain. The Center for Disease Control publishes warnings about this; and if your public pool hasn't gotten around to banning these diapers, it is only a matter of time before they will.

So, if you're going to be a responsible parent, don't ask for trouble by putting your baby in the public pool. Don't expose other people to your baby's excreta. (Why would you would want to expose a baby to the virulent waterborne pathogens in a public pool anyway?) If you're going to be a responsible adult, do a visible inspection before you get in the water, and determine if the pool at least looks clean. Inspect on your own behalf and for your child. If you're the one responsible for maintaining the pool, remember you're holding public health in your hand.

Full post as published by The Brockovich Report on May 23, 2008 (boomark / email).