9,
Water may markedly aggravete certain s*in diseases. Individuals vith certain
types of exema and other conditions made worse bv moisture should avoid the pool.

Svimming may promote the spread of such communicable diseases as ring-
“orm, and scabies, by bringing the infected and uninfected directly or indirectly
in contact vith one another. Athlete's foot is widespread end has stimlated the
the production of many supposed panaceas. Too often they have little more
therapeutic basis than wishful thinking and economic gain. Foot baths of various
Kinds have been advised, but most of them have proved ineffective because the
trichophyton is quite resistant, the chemical can not be used in sufficient
concentration vithout causing irritation or the swimmers vill not stand in the
solution long enough to allow sufficient time to destroy this fungus. Fungicides
may heve an inhibiting effect, but to exnect more of them is to be quite optimis-—
tic. The best protection against athlete's foot is cleanliness, dry foot, and
foot covering which protects the infected against re-infection and the uninfected
against the infected.

Polluted vater may contain either animels or plants ~hich may parasitize
the skin and cause inflammation, The corcaria or larval form of the Schistosoma
is a notable example. Possibly certain mycoses may pass from one individual to
another by “ay of the water of poorly managed srimming pools. Mycotic infections
are often spread by the common use of torels, brushes, combs, etc.

Venereal Disease

Some years ago swimming nools ~ere renorted to have been a source of
venereal disease. They vere small, highly polluted pools and those infected

vere females. A well managed pool with a residual chlorine content of 0.4 -

0.6 p.pem. is not e factor in the occurrence of gonorrhea or syphilis in a
comminity. The relatively low temperature of the vater, the presence of chlorine,
end the difficulty with which the gonococcus and the snirochaeta pallida survive
outside of the body insure against transmission of venereal disease in swimming

pools,

In highly polluted pools under specially favorable circumstances, it is
conceivable the gonococcus may get into the eyes of swimmers and cause inflamma-
tion, When this occurs, vith the exception of the one chance in a million, the
pool has to be indescribably dirty, its management incompetent, the cleansing
shower neglected, and its chlorine content too low to be effective. The common
use of towels end possibly of soap offers an opvortunity for the gonococcus to
pass from one female to another or to get into the eyes and produce 2 very ser-
ious type of cohjunctivitis.

Castro-Intestinal Infections

Typhoid fever, the dysenteries, and other diseases whose transmission is
accomplished by bacteria passing more or less ravidly from the intestine of one
individual to the mouth of onother may be conveyed to swimmers in several avs:

1, Within the pool itself - if it is poorly managed end its residual

‘ chlorine is inadeguate.
2. Bw pollution of the water outside of the pool and ‘insufficient dis-
infection before it reaches it.
By bathing in water too close to its source of pollution and thus not
giving an opportunity for purification by dilution, Swimming near
the outlet of a sever is an excellent example.

ol