Houston safety: Preventing over-chlorination in your pool this summer

Protecting your pool this summer season

FOX 26 Reporter Shelby Rose has more on how you should be sure to take care of your pool in an effort to prevent over-chlorination.

HOUSTON - As the sun continues to beat down on the Houston metro area, many are cooling off in a pool. But on Saturday, that turned dangerous at Club Westside. At least ten people were sent to the hospital for possible chlorine poisoning.

It’s something Full Splash Pool Service owner Stefan Diasti says should have never happened.

"For commercial settings, they should be CPO (certified pool operator) certified, and so whoever is maintaining the pool, they should be doing daily if not multiple times a day logs, and those should be recorded. So there really shouldn’t be an opportunity for the chlorine levels to get as high as they are to cause poisoning in that many people," he said.

And it can come with some serious symptoms, such as, "Eye irritation, skin irritation, lung irritation if you have asthma or are prone to respiratory issues, vomiting, diarrhea," Diasti listed off. "These are signs that if you notice those after swimming, that would be something to be, cause for concern."

Diasti says chlorine poisoning is rare, especially in home pools, considering ways to prevent it is as simple as testing the water weekly with a strip or drops.

If it shows high chlorine levels, there are a few things you can do, but time is your best bet.

"For chlorine, the only way to get rid of it is use of the pool, obviously contaminants will eat up that chlorine, dilution, so adding water and draining down some of the water and then the sun will also burn off that chlorine," said Diasti.

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Also doing things as simple as brushing the sides of your pool can prevent over-chlorination.

Diasti explained, "So if you’re doing proper brushing, and you’re maintaining your chemistry, you’re not going to have the need to over-chlorinate. If the algae gets built up, that’s when you’re having to super-shock and over-chlorinate to kill off all that algae. That’s not necessary if you do proper maintenance on a weekly basis."

Diasti added another thing to keep in mind is having a salt water pool in your home reduces the need for the chemicals.