Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
Does anybody believe a quick rinse under the shower is ridding you of any of that? The trace feedback matter will be largely on the bathing suit region and on your hands. Any pathogenic bacteria will be colonized on the skin and not able to be rinsed of or will be on your hands. What are you going to catch from a pool that would be rinsed off in a shower?
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I'm going to have to admit to a certain amount of ignorance here. I have been servicing pools for 15 years, and managing the pools for a school district for almost a decade. I additionally have a small consulting business on the side dealing with the construction/maintenance side of commercial operations. My original post was a rote response from the CPO (Certified Pool Operator) training, but I had honestly never considered any of the policies beyond the surface level. Your response made entirely too much sense for me to not look into it further.
After doing some research and consulting a doctor friend you're entirely right. The trace amounts that a quick rinse before swimming will remove are basically inconsequential. I suppose one could make a case for "if everyone does their part", but really it's a non-issue. I even went as far as to talk to our local health inspector, and his response was that the policies originated from a time when personal hygiene was much lower and were never changed.
There are some issues on the operator side dealing with chloramines that could be lessened by a pre-swim rinse, but again these are minimal.
In short (sort-of) I apologize to OotC. Keep doing what you do.