Disinfection by-product dynamics in a chlorinated, indoor swimming pool under conditions of heavy use: national swimming competition
Abstract
Anecdotal evidence suggests that water quality in chlorinated, indoor pools deteriorates under conditions of heavy use. However, data to define these dynamics have not been reported. To address this issue, a study was performed in which water chemistry was monitored in a chlorinated, indoor pool before and during a national swimming competition, a period of heavy, intense use. NCl3 concentration was observed to double after the first day, and increased by a factor of 3-4 over the 4 days of competition. CNCHCl2 and CH3NCl2 concentrations both increased by a factor of 2-3 during the course of the meet, while CHCl3 concentration showed only a modest increase during this same period. Diurnal patterns of NCl3, CH3NCl2 and CHCl3 concentrations were observed, and these patterns appeared to depend on the Henry's law constant of the compound. Urea concentration showed a diurnal pattern, superimposed on a trend of steady increase during each day of the competition; however, the diurnal pattern of urea behavior could not be explained by reactions with chlorine, as the urea-free chlorine reaction is relatively slow. It is more likely that the overnight decrease in urea concentration was attributable to mixing of surface water with water in the deeper parts of the pool. The findings of this study provide an indication of the changes in pool water chemistry that take place in a chlorinated, indoor pool under heavy use conditions.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Chlorination is the most commonly used disinfection approach for swimming pool water treatment.
“Chlorination is the most commonly used disinfection approach for SPW treatment (Afifi and Blatchley III, 2015;Kogevinas et al., 2010;Weng and Blatchley III, 2011).”
From Regulation, formation, exposure, and treatment of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in swimming pool waters: A critical review (2018) · cites this paper as Weng and Blatchley III, 2011
Urea in an indoor pool increased by 72.4-155 μg/L daily during a national swimming competition, equivalent to 0.56-1.20 g urea or 0.26-0.56 g total nitrogen released by each bather per day.
“Urea in an indoor pool increased by 72.4-155 μg/L daily during a national swimming competition, which was equivalent to 0.56-1.20 g urea or 0.26-0.56g TN released by each bather per day (Weng and Blatchley III, 2011).”
From Regulation, formation, exposure, and treatment of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in swimming pool waters: A critical review (2018) · cites this paper as Weng and Blatchley III, 2011
Cites
RICHARDSON, S., PLEWA, M., WAGNER, E., SCHOENY, R., & DEMARINI, D. (2007) · Mutation Research/Reviews in Mutation Research · doi:10.1016/j.mrrev.2007.09.001 · Cited by 3,317 · see citing works
Drowning in disinfection byproducts? Assessing swimming pool water
Zwiener, C., Richardson, S. D., De Marini, D. M., Grummt, T., Glauner, T., & Frimmel, F. H. (2007) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es062367v · Cited by 380 · see citing works
Richardson, S. D., DeMarini, D. M., Kogevinas, M., Fernandez, P., Marco, E., Lourencetti, C., Ballesté, C., Heederik, D., Meliefste, K., McKague, A. B., et al. (2010) · Environmental Health Perspectives · doi:10.1289/ehp.1001965 · Cited by 327 · see citing works
Exposure to trichloramine and respiratory symptoms in indoor swimming pool workers
Jacobs, J. H., Spaan, S., van Rooy, G. B. G. J., Meliefste, C., Zaat, V. A. C., Rooyackers, J. M., & Heederik, D. (2007) · European Respiratory Journal · doi:10.1183/09031936.00024706 · Cited by 223 · see citing works
Li, J., & Blatchley, E. R. (2007) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es070871+ · Cited by 177 · see citing works
Self-citationVolatile disinfection by-product analysis from chlorinated indoor swimming pools
Weaver, W. A., Li, J., Wen, Y., Johnston, J., Blatchley, M. R., & Blatchley III, E. R. (2009) · Water Research · doi:10.1016/j.watres.2009.04.035 · Cited by 172 · see citing works
Bowen, A. B., Kile, J. C., Otto, C., Kazerouni, N., Austin, C., Blount, B. C., Wong, H.-N., Beach, M. J., & Fry, A. M. (2007) · Environmental Health Perspectives · doi:10.1289/ehp.9555 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Disinfection byproducts in swimming pool: occurrences, implications and future needs
Chowdhury, S., Alhooshani, K., & Karanfil, T. (2014) · Water Research · doi:10.1016/j.watres.2014.01.017 · Cited by 224 · see citing works
Yang, L., Chen, X., She, Q., Cao, G., Liu, Y., Chang, V. W.-C., & Tang, C. Y. (2018) · Environment International · doi:10.1016/j.envint.2018.10.024 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
- Authors
- Weng, S., & Blatchley, E. R.
- Affiliations
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- Corresponding author
- Blatchley, Ernest R.
- ORCID
- Blatchley, Ernest R.
- Venue
- Water Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-10
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 16
- Pages
- 5241-5248
- ISSN
- 0043-1354 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1992050570
- Cited by
- 76
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 4 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 5.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Water Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Water Treatment and Disinfection
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Fecal contamination and water quality
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Advanced oxidation water treatment
- Keywords
- disinfection by-products, trichloramine, chloroform, cyanogen chloride, diurnal variation, Henry's law constant, urea, water quality, chlorine disinfection
- MeSH terms
- Chlorine, Disinfectants, Humans, Swimming, Swimming Pools, Volatile Organic Compounds
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
