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The heat is tightening, the afternoons lengthen and the body asks for a pool . But this year the towel afternoons look very different, and the questions about what the swims will be like weigh in the towel bag, the flip flops and the sunscreen. What must be done so that the covid-19 is not transmitted through water? What clothes are more suitable to avoid infection? What safe distance should I keep while bathing? This is what you need to know to make the risk as low as possible, for yourself and others.
The first thing to keep in mind is that in the water, as in the street, the threat is in the respiratory secretions that some bathers could generate when they cough, sneeze and contact other people. "The greatest danger will not be the water, but the people," emphasizes Antonio Figueras, professor at the Institute of Marine Research and co-author of the 'Report on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2' in beaches and swimming pools, which the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) went public earlier this month. But, unlike public roads, wearing face masks in water is complicated, which means that interpersonal distance becomes even more important. So this summer the exit operation will not be the only step, the entrances and exits of the pool will follow the same pattern:One will not be able to bathe when the body asks for it, but when the capacity limitations allow it.
And they promise to be serious. A document from the Spanish Association of Professionals in the Swimming Pool Sector (Asofap) proposes reducing the capacity by between 50% and 75%, depending on the installation . Drastic measures; With these figures, a pool 25 meters long by 12.5 meters wide would serve 20 people per hour. These bathers could remain in the water for 50 minutes, the following 10 will be used to do a quick cleaning: the bleach will not be lacking in the swimming ritual, it will be allowed to smell every hour while the pool is open. With this guideline, only 300 users could use the example installation every day, if it were open from 7.30 a.m. to 10.30 p.m. They are few people, but "to manage to maintain the recommended social distance, the only possible way is to reduce the capacity," says Figueras. And what will be that distance in the water?
According to the report, "the capacity of swimming pools for public use is usually calculated from 2-4 square meters of sheet of water per bather, depending on each autonomous community." For this summer, the Asofap, which is the employer of the sector, recommends 4 square meters in glasses outdoors , 6 meters (2.45 meters by 2.45 meters) in covered glasses and 9 square meters in the locker room. "The fact of recommending a somewhat greater safety distance in indoor swimming pools could respond to the fact that in a closed one there is a little more chance of catching it", argues Joan Grimalt, director of the Institute of Environmental Diagnosis and Water Studies (IDAEA-CSIC).
It will be the year of the bleach and a couple of towels
During the last weeks we have learned to put on a mask , to wash our hands for 40 seconds, to always have a hydro-alcoholic gel on hand ... and excursions to the pool will also require new rituals. For example, taking a couple of pieces to the pool, suggests Grimalt, to avoid having to dry with the same garment that we put on top of the hammock or chair, at the risk that it may be contaminated. Two better than one and, when you get home, everything to the washing machine at 60ºC. In the end, it is about getting as few tickets as possible for the raffle in which the covid-19 is raffled taking into account that the ballots are distributed, in this order, by the people around us, the surfaces that surround the area bath and water of the 120,000 pools that are estimated to be in Spain.
Regarding surfaces, the CSIC report indicates that, according to several studies carried out this year, the virus can persist for several days on smooth surfaces such as plastic or steel, so you will have to be careful in the pool to not touching the railings, for example. And wash your hands well if this happens; it's time to add hydroalcoholic gel to the sun cream. The good news is that the website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that the coronavirus has not been detected in drinking water, which means that conventional methods that use filtration and disinfection, such as those used By most municipal drinking water systems, they should remove or disable the new coronavirus.
What will not change is the obligation to shower. If it is advisable to do it not only before getting into the water, but also after bathing, it is because an excessive level of chlorine can irritate the eyes and generate itching; hence the recommendation to shower with soap and water when leaving the water. The big difference is that, this summer, nobody will complain about the discomfort of the chemical element, because there is confidence in its disinfecting power.
The usual chlorine and ultraviolet light?
"There is no need to do anything special or anything different than usual to eliminate coronavirus from swimming pools, only to comply with the technical-sanitary criteria set forth in the legislation," indicates David Tapias, R&D director for Europe and Asia at Fluidra . "With a free chlorine level of 0.5 mg / l and a pH below 8, the water is not only disinfected, but also has disinfecting potential to kill any coronavirus or germ that may enter the water," says the director. R&D of the company specialized in swimming pool equipment .
Fluidra, which operates in 45 countries, anticipated the CSIC report a few days when launching a guide that clarified that to protect yourself against the coronavirus, it was enough to use chlorine tablets or liquid chlorine (or saline electrolysis devices, which automatically generate chlorine at from salt dissolved in the pool water). And, in case you want to give an extra push to the protection, "install as a complement a team of ultraviolet C radiation with great germicidal capacity ," advises Tapias, who points out that these lamps are not the same as those used in centers tanning.
According to Tapias, when chlorine is poured into the pool water (either in liquid, solid form or through electrolysis salt equipment) it is transformed into two substances, active and non-active chlorine. " Active chlorine, hypochlorous acid, is the one that most interests you in the pool because of its high disinfection potential." In the end, the important message is to keep free residual chlorine in the pool above 0.5 mg / liter, so the recommendation is to keep it between 1 and 2 mg / L, especially in public pools. "Whether there is more active than inactive chlorine depends on the pH, which is why it is so important," stresses this expert. "The recommended water pH is between 7.2 and 7.6. In this pH range, 80% is known to be in the form of active chlorine, which ensures correct antimicrobial capacity."
Regarding whether it is advisable to pour non-chlorine products into the pool to achieve a deeper disinfection, Figueras and Grimalt answer no, after alerting the latter that ethyl acid could interact with chlorine and make it less effective. So, the experiments, with soda.
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