The next time you decide to take a plunge into a swimming pool you might want to think about whats in the water you're about to be bathed in. Aside from saliva, urine, and other bodily discharges, Maria Jose Cardador and Mercedes Gallego, researchers from Department of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Córdoba in Córdoba, Spain, recently published a study that for the first time quantified the exposure of humans to potentially harmful haloacetic acids (HAA). The paper appears in a recent issue of the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology.

HAAs are a common unwanted byproduct of water chlorination and have been receiving a lot of attention with respect to human health. The researchers cite that different classes of HAAs have been linked to liver- and neurotoxicities and cardiac defects in rat fetuses, and are also carcinogenic. Shockingly, just 30 minutes after exposure in a pool, the study shows the appearance of HAAs in the urine of swimmers.

The researchers point out that government regulations in the United States and Europe limit the levels of HAAs that can appear in drinking water, also purified mainly by chlorination. The limits stem from research suggesting that elevated levels of HAAs in municipal drinking water supplies may be linked to birth defects and a higher incidence of some cancers. However, few studies have examined HAA exposure from swimming pools, where water may contain higher levels due to recirculation systems that lengthen water's exposure to chlorine and provide more time for HAAs to form.

Gallego and Cardador measured HAA levels in the urine of 49 volunteers who swam in or worked around an indoor and outdoor pool. "The results showed that HAAs appeared 20-30 minutes after exposure and were eliminated [from the body] within three hours," they note. Over 90 percent of the exposures probably occurred as a result of swallowing pool water. Far fewer HAAs were inhaled or taken in through the skin. Children were more likely than adults to have a high concentration of HAAs after swimming and swimmers accumulated HAAs almost four times as fast as people working around the pool.

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