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Swimming Pool News reports from the UK Pool & Spa Conference at Oxford
Chlorine free products "need to prove themselves"
Chlorine free products have to prove themselves in the market place and against industry protocol- that's the view of the SPATA technical review committee.
Howard Gosling said that PWTAG (Pure Water
Treatment Advisory Group) has been clear and
remains so that there must be an oxidising residual
disinfectant in the pool water.
He told the conference: "There has recently been a proposal to write a protocol of testing that would have to be carried out in a laboratory initially before any subsequent 'field trials' in order to demonstrate the performance of an alternative disinfectant. We have been invited to join in writing this protocol.
"It has always been accepted that neither ozone nor UV can be used without a residual oxidizing disinfectant.
"The official unqualified advice of PWTAG is that, with these so called 'alternative treatments', a residual oxidizing disinfectant should always be present in the water as well.
"In the case of SPATA and BISHTA Standards, a residual disinfectant is chlorine or bromine based products or a Polymeric biguanide.
"It would be wrong for the SPATA Technical Committee to go against the advice of the PWTAG experts especially when one considers the danger of Legionella and the HSE’s comment that deaths from this bacterium may result in prosecution.
"I would go as far as to suggest for SPATA, or BISHTA for that matter, to stray from that line would be foolish in the extreme as we would only need one case of death due to the build up of harmful bacteria etc in pool or spa water for the doors to be opened to a law suit.
"However that does not mean that we are 'stick in the mud's' I believe that the manufacturers of such 'chlorine free' products must prove the effectiveness against the protocol."
He referred to the Swimming Pool and Spa International Conference held at the Royal College of Physicians in London from 17-20 March 2009. The conference is the third in the series and follows on from Conferences in Munich and Budapest with speakers from all over the World presenting the latest Research.
"Chlorine suffers a bad press and people forget that it is only due to the chlorination of drinking water, just over a century ago, that we have eliminated cholera from the UK.
"We need to change British attitudes; pre-swim toilet and shower, preferably nude showering, to wash those parts of the body which cannot be washed with a swim suit on, is extremely effective in reducing pollution in the water and therefore the amount of chlorine required.
"Consequently the SPATA view is that we support the PWTAG guidance and traditional disinfectants are required."
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Swimming Pool News reports from the UK Pool & Spa Conference at Oxford
Chlorine free products "need to prove themselves"
Chlorine free products have to prove themselves in the market place and against industry protocol- that's the view of the SPATA technical review committee.
He told the conference: "There has recently been a proposal to write a protocol of testing that would have to be carried out in a laboratory initially before any subsequent 'field trials' in order to demonstrate the performance of an alternative disinfectant. We have been invited to join in writing this protocol.
"It has always been accepted that neither ozone nor UV can be used without a residual oxidizing disinfectant.
"The official unqualified advice of PWTAG is that, with these so called 'alternative treatments', a residual oxidizing disinfectant should always be present in the water as well.
"In the case of SPATA and BISHTA Standards, a residual disinfectant is chlorine or bromine based products or a Polymeric biguanide.
"We would only need one case of death due to the build up of harmful bacteria etc in pool or spa water for the doors to be opened to a law suit"
"It would be wrong for the SPATA Technical Committee to go against the advice of the PWTAG experts especially when one considers the danger of Legionella and the HSE’s comment that deaths from this bacterium may result in prosecution.
"I would go as far as to suggest for SPATA, or BISHTA for that matter, to stray from that line would be foolish in the extreme as we would only need one case of death due to the build up of harmful bacteria etc in pool or spa water for the doors to be opened to a law suit.
"However that does not mean that we are 'stick in the mud's' I believe that the manufacturers of such 'chlorine free' products must prove the effectiveness against the protocol."
He referred to the Swimming Pool and Spa International Conference held at the Royal College of Physicians in London from 17-20 March 2009. The conference is the third in the series and follows on from Conferences in Munich and Budapest with speakers from all over the World presenting the latest Research.
"Chlorine suffers a bad press and people forget that it is only due to the chlorination of drinking water, just over a century ago, that we have eliminated cholera from the UK.
"We need to change British attitudes; pre-swim toilet and shower, preferably nude showering, to wash those parts of the body which cannot be washed with a swim suit on, is extremely effective in reducing pollution in the water and therefore the amount of chlorine required.
"Consequently the SPATA view is that we support the PWTAG guidance and traditional disinfectants are required."
<< Back to conference index