As temperatures begin to rise and summer draws closer, recreational water facilities are preparing for their busy season. Health officials who inspect these facilities will also be out in full force conducting routine inspections.

“Looking for Trouble—Seeing Eye-to-Eye with Health Inspectors,” a report issued by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and Axiall Corporation’s Water Treatment business, provides insights into commercial pool inspections and recommendations on how pool operators can avoid violations and potential shutdowns.

“With the busy swimming season ahead, we feel it’s important to remind pool operators and the general public about the report’s availability and the valuable information it contains on what health inspectors look for, and more importantly, find, during their facility inspections,” said Frank Schiffman, senior market manager, Axiall Water Treatment Products. “We first shared the report with the aquatics industry at the World Aquatic Health Conference last October.”

The report includes details on the following:

  • 75 percent of responding local health departments reported a commercial pool being shut down by their agency within the past two years.
  • Of those that reported a shutdown:
    • 90 percent attributed it to low sanitizing levels/chlorine.
    • 61 percent attributed it to pH being out of balance.
    • 53 percent attributed it to cloudiness or turbidity of the water.
  • 32 percent of the respondents reported always finding violations in apartment complexes.
  • 54 percent reported violations in two out of three apartment complex inspections.
  • 36 percent reported that hotels and motels have the most water quality violations.

"We’ve never been able to talk to health departments about this topic in such detail before,” said Jennifer Li, NACCHO's director of environmental health and health and disability. “We now have a better understanding of the challenges pool operators face and the most frequently cited health code violations. The report details the most common violations, but more importantly provides some guidance on how pool operators can avoid them and a potential shutdown.”

Water quality violations were prevalent in the study with most related to chemical balance issues or water cloudiness. These problems could potentially be the most serious and dangerous for the swimming public.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the significant increase in incidents of illness associated with swimming pools is largely due to the parasite Cryptosporidium, which can survive for days in water at CDC-recommended chlorine levels. To remove this parasite from pool water, the pool is quarantined and large amounts of chlorine must be administered and the water tested before swimmers re-enter.

“Cryptosporidium has become the leading cause of swimming pool-related illnesses, and case reporting for the parasite doubled from 2004 to 2012,” said Michael J. Beach, Ph.D., associate director for healthy water at the CDC’s National Center for Emerging, Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases. “The CDC encourages health departments to raise awareness during Healthy and Safe Swimming Week, May 18 through May 24, and to explore the free Model Aquatic Health Code—CDC’s new science-based guidelines for pool inspection programs.”

The Model Aquatic Health Code contains detailed recommendations to reduce the risk of Cryptosporidium and other causes of outbreaks, drowning and chemical injuries.

“Being able to present this critical information to the industry and the general public is important,” added Schiffman. “As a leader in the manufacturing of tablet chlorination systems for recreational water facilities around the world, we recognize the importance of keeping the swimming public safe. Our NACCHO colleagues share our concerns. We’re proud to be associated with NACCHO and share in the publication of this report.”

The full report is available at www.LookingForTroubleStudy.com and is free to NACCHO members. For non-members, the fee is $19.99. Axiall will donate 50 percent of the proceeds from the first 100 reports purchased to the National Swimming Pool Foundation (NSPF).

About the National Association of County and City Health Officials

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the nation's 2,800 local governmental health departments. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information about NACCHO, please visit www.naccho.org.

About Axiall

Axiall Corporation (NYSE: AXLL) is a leading integrated chemicals and building products company. Headquartered in Atlanta, Axiall has manufacturing facilities located throughout North America and in Asia to provide industry-leading materials and services to customers. For more information, visit www.axiall.com.

Note to media: To receive a complimentary copy of the full report, please contact Scott Henry at shenry@pipitonegroup.com.