Pool Chemicals

Since a swimmer spends so much time in the water, the pool chemicals that are used (and often abused) by pool managers as they try to keep the pool water clean from the kids who like to pee in the pool, slowly seep into a swimmer's skin making them have a very distinctive and pervasive odor. Furthermore, these chemicals damage hair and nails, so swimmers who value their appearance tend to have to take extra steps to keep their appearance up to their standards. Swimmers, the masochists that they are, regularly spend up to six hours a day in this caustic environment and would probably do more, if they didn't have to sleep. So how do swimmers put up with it all? Chemical warfare.

If you've ever been underwater at a pool, you know the primary chemical that pools use to keep the water safe from biological contamination; chlorine. If you don't have eye protection, your eyes will start to itch, then burn, and eventually turn so red that Dracula will think you're a long lost relative. Once this happens to you, the thing you must not do is rub your eyes. I know it's like being told not to scratch poison ivy, but rubbing your eyes when they've been exposed to chlorine rubs the chemicals deeper into the tissue around your eyes. You will feel better for a few seconds then they will itch ten times worse. The best thing to do when you feel like your eyes have been exposed to too much chlorine is to run your eyes through water from the tap in the locker room. I know some of you are thinking that's just the hair of the dog that bit you, but the water coming out of the tap in the locker room or from the drinking fountain contains hundredths of the chemical content in the pool water. Once you rinse your eyes out, you'll feel much better and within a few minutes, you'll even look human.

What can you do, though, when the local pool manager has decided to hyper-chlorinate the pool and the air tastes like a chrome tailpipe? Open a door and get some air. Most pools are designed and operated on the behalf of waders. As such, they are frequently treated as toilets by their clientele. Pool managers, who don't get paid if the pool is closed, will put up to 10 times the recommended chlorine into the water in hopes of killing the germs and staying open. Unfortunately, when swimming practice time comes after school, the air has been suffused with a mild mustard gas that burns the lungs of the passer by, and sears the lungs of anyone trying to work out in there. Furthermore, chlorine is heavier than air and as such will tend to gather at the water surface. While the coach (who is frequently the pool manager) is claiming that he can breathe perfectly fine, the swimmer gets to breathe the gas nearest the water as they're swimming along. Once you've been affected by this mustard gas there's really not much you can do besides get clean, fresh air into the pool (and put up with the coughing). The best way to do this is to open all the windows and doors. Even if the air is freezing outside, it's far better to catch cold than ruin your lungs.

Chlorine however is not the only chemical that pool managers use to maintain their pools (and stay on the good side of the health department). Many pools use muriatic and hydrochloric acid in order to keep their pools pristine. These acids work wonders on balancing the water's PH after having to hyper-chlorinate. They are also used to get that stubborn black mildew off of the pool's walls. Unfortunately, they can also damage a swimmers hair, nails and even teeth, if you're not careful. So once a swimmer is done with practice, they'll have to get all those chemicals off their bodies. This is why a swimmer showers.

I know you must be thinking that swimmers spend all their time in the water that's kept clean and fresh for them and then go shower themselves off. They must be the cleanest people in the world, right? Wrong. The chemicals that a swimmer soaks in day after day, leaches calcium from nails, removes oil from hair and skin, breaks down rubber, and destroys lycra and nylon. Swimmers always smell of chlorine, but must shower in order to remove all the acids and chemicals off of their bodies. Now if you care for your hair and nails, you'll have to condition your hair and use vitamin E cream on your nails. Otherwise both become brittle. You may want to drink after swimming because you're thirsty, but that's also a good idea to wash the acids off your teeth so they're not etched by the strong acids in the water.

Another perennial problem that swimmers have is with their skin. Dunking yourself in water repeatedly is a quick way to rob your skin of moisture as the air leaches the moisture away from your body as you dry. The chemical-laden water of swimming pools is even worse. Chlorine strips away a body's natural oil so that when you do get out and dry off, there are fewer oils to keep moisture in your skin. To avoid this, many swimmers use over-the-counter body lotion after drying off to seal in whatever moisture might be left after getting out of the pool and drying off. It's not a perfect solution but it does make you considerably less itchy after practice.

When you spend upwards of six hours in a pool a day, though, there's no way you're going to completely cleanse the chlorine and other chemicals from your body. If you take care of yourself, with conditioner, skin lotion, and showers, you'll avoid most of the most damaging effects of these chemicals.

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