What can be done to eliminate skin rashes from swimming in bromine pools if you do not have a reaction in chlorine pools?

Answer 1

I have a major problem with bromine and get a horrible rash when I swim with it. The only thing that sort of works is to use a barrier cream (basically something that people use when they work with hazardous chemicals--a bit scary). The one I've found that works reasonably well is Kerodex Wet. you can go to your pharmacy and ask them to order it. It costs about $5/tube and lasts for a bit. It doesn't work perfectly, but has allowed me to keep swimming. My dermatologist told me that about 3% of people are allergic to bromine. I've swum since I was about 3 months old and never had a problem with chlorine, but bromine seems to not agree with me.

Answer

Well some people are just plain alergic to some stuff and I have never heard of pill you can take, But other than inert ingredients they are primarily the same. Usually you get a rash from having too much chlorine or bromine in the water you may want to go to your local pool supply house and get a cheap test kit or strips and before you get in make sure the levels are not too high. The use of a good quality lotion applied after you get out may also help. Good Swimming

Answer

There are a lot of things that can cause rashes and it is not unusual for someone to be allergic to a particular chemical, but I do not think it is as common as most people think.

The most common thing people develop rashes from is a bacterium; this can occur if the pool water chemistry is not maintained properly. So, off to the nearest pool store with a water sample to make sure that all balances are as they should be.

Here are some things that can cause rashes in Swimming Pools or spas:

If you are developing a rash chances are there is a build up of bacteria that the normal levels of bromine are not treating. You do not normally have to shock a brominated pool but if you are having a rash I recommend it highly.

Also in the water chemistry arena is the pH, if the pH level goes above 7.8 the bromine kill rate will slow down and the higher the pH is the slower the kill rate will be. So you can have 5 parts per million of bromine and a pH of 8.2 and you might as well have not brominated the pool, when this happens your pool will not be sanitary and bacteria and algae can get started.

There is a possibility if you have sensitivity to bromine or chlorine you could develop a rash from high or low levels of either sanitizer.

Some peoples skins are just sensitive and they could develop a rash from just about anything in the water and water has a lot in it don't be fooled by the water clarity. You can't judge a book by its cover as you cannot judge the quality of pool or spa water by its clarity.

Answer

OH MY! Why is swimming in chemicals such an excepted practice? Chlorine, Salt Generated Chlorine, Shock, Stabalizers, where does it stop? You add one chemical you need to add two more to balance the pool. Then jump on in! Technology has moved well beyond chemical addition! Look into UV systems...not Ozone generated by UV, strait UV technology will Kill algae, not just put it to sleep like chlorine does. UV also destroys more bacteria..which is why you use chemicals - than any other system including and especially salt systems. Read the World Health Organization - Healthy Pool Guidelines! Read what the Centers For Disease Control and the scientific community says about swimming pools. Read about cryptosporidium in your pool and your kids! Read about THM's and HAA's! Read about reproductive and developmental problems associated with Chlorine Disinfection By Products (DBP's)! Then you will quit using shock and use a light bulb instead! Technology is a beautiful thing!

This is the best idea if you can afford the $10,000 it costs to equip your pool with it.

From our experience it is not the chlorine or bromine that is causing the skin rash in pools or hot tubs.

The rash is caused by TRIHALOMETHANES(THM,s) in the form of either chloroform or bromoform.

Chlorine is a naturally occurring element in your body as is hydrochloric acid (food digestion).

It is formed by the body,s electrolytic reaction to chloride salts ingested in foods and salt .

UV light is great for destroying chloramines but in some studies there is a suggestion that it

may accelerate the formation of THM,s.

In any case UV light does not leave a residual and will only neutralize bacteria and chloramines in that water which passes through the light in the pool or spa hydraulic system.

Most health authorities worldwide will not allow alternate sanitizers to chlorine or bromine unless it is backed up by those same sanitizers in the form of a residual,ususally in much reduced amounts.

Chlorine will kill bacteria at .2ppm[parts per million] (so presumably bromine does the same as they are both halogens).

Chlorine at levels of up to 1ppm is quite safe so long as the precursors in the form of carbon based organics such as dead skin cells,oils and creams,vegetative matter are effectively filtered from the pool water then the residual chlorine cannot combine to form these nasty disinfection byproducts.

The other nasty disinfection byproduct is chloramine which is formed when chlorine combines with either urine or sweat ,but unless you are in the habit of drinking pool or spa water it tends not to be the problem of THM,s as far as skin rashes and exzema are concerned.

Unfortunately in the mistaken belief that more chlorine (often a level of over 3ppm) will kill bacteria and dangerous parasites such as cryptosporidia and guardia health authorities have mandated high doses of chlorine to rid the water body of these nasties.

Unfortunately the cyst like structure of the parasites requires levels of over 50ppm chlorine to exterminate them and levels of 3ppm chlorine do not even come close.

In fact such high levels only exasperate the formation of disinfection byproducts which in reality are much more dangerous than the parasites they will never kill at the low ineffective doses of chlorine .

THM,s are responsible for Asthma and quite carcinogenic ,not to mention the havoc they create in the form of skin disorders.

Adding skin barrier creams which are in the main mineral oil based before swimming only adds to the problem as a feedstock for the combination with chlorine to make more THM,s.

The German approach is to keep the free chlorine under .6ppm ,and filter the water by adding an aluminum based flocculant passed through a filter with an active carbon bed over

sand thus filtering out parasites (which cannot even be killed at 50ppm).

The THM,s and chloramines are effectively removed from the water by the active carbon together with the chlorine,which is then made up by a fresh dosing.

The system works well but a watchful eyes needs to be taken over this sytem as the carbon is a wonderful breeding ground for legionella.

An Australian company MAGNAPOOL seems to have found the ideal answer. Through their sister company POOLRITE which has installed pool filtration and sanitizing equipment on over 200,000 swimming pools worldwide they have developed a unique and novel method for dealing with the problem.

Magnesium and Potassium based chloride minerals are added to the water ,and through the flocculating and coagulating ability of the magnesium component which passes through an electrolysis cell also produces chlorine as a byproduct.

the flocs are removed in a sand filter that uses recycled glass of a coarser grading than sand to stop the filter bed from clogging up.

The water can filter down to as low a turbidity of zero meaning that effectively there can be no undissolved matter including parasites floating around in the water.

because of this the chlorine demand is as little as 30% of a regular pool and it is really there on standby mainly combining with urine and sweat which cannot be flocked out.

The electrolysis cell megachlorinates on each pass thereby reducing any chloramines.

The process although used on residential pools in Australia and Germany for the last 2 years has only recently been applied to commercial pools with outstanding results.

A 700,000 litre community pool at Kuranda in the tropical northern part of Australia consumed only 60,000 litres of water over a 12 month period (vs, 1,500,000 litres in a typical sodium hypochlorite pool that is often superchlorinated in some instances twice per week and diluted with fresh water to reduce the toxic brew).

TRIHALOMETHANES and CHLORAMINES are almost negligible and their is no "chlorine smell" emmanating from the pool.

The more telling test however has been on a chain of 12 swim schools (Shapland Swim Schools) and the outcomes for both children and instructors.

All the pools are indoor and hold 80,000 litres heated to 32 degrees c. bather loads of up to 1000 kids per week meant that the disinfection byproduct formation caused huge problems with the skin conditions of instructors,not to mention the airborne smell generated.

Some instructors actually went home at night and scratched their skin with a fork to get relief.

within 4 days of the retrofit installation of a Magnapool System the accretive effects of potassium and magnesium actually reversed the condition on the affected instructors.

Similar testimonials from burn victims and exczema sufferers in residential pools attest to the efficacy of the system.