Seasonal dynamics of water and air chemistry in an indoor chlorinated swimming pool
Abstract
Although swimming is known to be beneficial in terms of cardiovascular health, as well as for some forms of rehabilitation, swimming is also known to present risks to human health, largely in the form of exposure to microbial pathogens and disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Relatively little information is available in the literature to characterize the seasonal dynamics of air and water chemistry in indoor chlorinated swimming pools. To address this issue, water samples were collected five days per week from an indoor chlorinated swimming pool facility at a high school during the academic year and once per week during summer over a fourteen-month period. The samples were analyzed for free and combined chlorine, urea, volatile DBPs, pH, temperature and total alkalinity. Membrane Introduction Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) was used to identify and measure the concentrations of eleven aqueous-phase volatile DBPs. Variability in the concentrations of these DBPs was observed. Factors that influenced variability included bather loading and mixing by swimmers. These compounds have the ability to adversely affect water and air quality and human health. A large fraction of the existing literature regarding swimming pool air quality has focused on trichloramine (NCl₃). For this work, gas-phase NCl₃ was analyzed by an air sparging-DPD/KI method. The results showed that gas-phase NCl₃ concentration is influenced by bather loading and liquid-phase NCl₃ concentration. Urea is the dominant organic-…
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Urea concentrations in swimming pool waters have been reported in ranges from 0.01 to 4.02 mg/L across studies.
“Urea in SPWs has been reported in many literature studies, e.g., 0.01-0.11mg/L by Afifi and Blatchley III (2015), 0.50-2.12mg/L by Schmalz et al. (2011), 0.12-3.6mg/L by De Laat et al. (2011), 0.01-4.02mg/L by Blatchley III and Cheng (2010).”
From Regulation, formation, exposure, and treatment of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in swimming pool waters: A critical review (2018) · cites this paper as Afifi and Blatchley III, 2015
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 Afifi and Blatchley III, 2015
Nitrogenous compounds containing various functional groups and forms of bound nitrogen have been proven as efficient trichloramine precursors, particularly at acidic and neutral pH conditions.
“A large portion of these nitrogenous compounds containing various functional groups (eNH 2 , eCOOH) and forms of bound nitrogen have been proven as efficient trichloramine precursors, particularly at acidic and neutral pH conditions (Afifi and Blatchley III, 2015;Blatchley III and Cheng, 2010;De Laat et al., 2011;Lian et al., 2014;Schmalz et al., 2011).”
From Regulation, formation, exposure, and treatment of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in swimming pool waters: A critical review (2018) · cites this paper as Afifi and Blatchley III, 2015
Other chlorinated inorganic or organic compounds present in air are suspected to interfere with trichloramine analysis, leading to an overestimation of trichloramine exposure, but the percentage of interference was not determined.
“Other chlorinated inorganic or organic compounds such as dichloroacetonitrile, cyanogen chloride, dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid or dichloromethylamine present in the air (Cardador and Gallego 2011;Weng et al. 2011;Afifi and Blatchley 2015) are suspected to interfere with the analysis leading to an overestimation of the trichloramine exposure.The percentage of interference was, however,”
From Inorganic chloramines: a critical review of the toxicological and epidemiological evidence as a basis for occupational exposure limit setting (2020) · cites this paper as Afifi and Blatchley 2015
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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
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- Authors
- Afifi, M. Z., & Blatchley, E. R.
- Affiliations
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- Corresponding author
- Blatchley, Ernest R.
- Venue
- Water Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-01
- Volume
- 68
- Pages
- 771-783
- ISSN
- 0043-1354 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2059164388
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 6
- FWCI
- 2.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Water Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Swimming Pool Foundation (NSPF)
- the American Chemistry Council
- Engineered Treatment System, LLC (ETS)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Water Treatment and Disinfection
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Indoor Air Quality and Microbial Exposure
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Fecal contamination and water quality
- Keywords
- seasonal dynamics, water chemistry, atmospheric chemistry, disinfection by-products, trichloramine, urea, total alkalinity, membrane inlet mass spectrometry
- MeSH terms
- Acetonitriles, Air Pollutants, Chloramines, Chlorides, Chlorine, Disinfectants, Disinfection, Halogens, Humans, Hydrogen-Ion Concentration, Nitriles, Seasons, Mass Spectrometry, Swimming Pools, Temperature, Urea, Volatilization, Water Pollutants, Chemical, Nitrogen Compounds, Trihalomethanes, Halogenation
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