So, at my local pool in the mornings, I sometimes find myself with a very itchy throat that progresses to quite a bad cough once the sets get a bit harder. Today I was coughing for virtually half of the session whenever I was at the end of the pool. I am pretty sure it is down to the amount of chlorine. I could find the inside of my cheeks go funny and my nose go tingly because of it also. Anyone else experience this? Has anything helped in terms of overcoming it?
I don’t get coughing but just general allergy type symptoms. A nose clip has helped immensely.
So, at my local pool in the mornings, I sometimes find myself with a very itchy throat that progresses to quite a bad cough once the sets get a bit harder. Today I was coughing for virtually half of the session whenever I was at the end of the pool. I am pretty sure it is down to the amount of chlorine. I could find the inside of my cheeks go funny and my nose go tingly because of it also. Anyone else experience this? Has anything helped in terms of overcoming it?
It’s fairly common on swim teams. It was probably a once-a-month kinda thing. Every now and then we’d have a practice where the pool managers messed up the chlorine levels, and every time you were stopped between harder sets the entire pool area would be echoing with the everyone on the team coughing. You’d also get some weird feelings in your mouth like you report.
On my HS team, it’d often happen the monday after the synchro team had an event: they’d have the shock the pool to deal with the makeup/hairspray/glitter/etc.
I am not a swimmer but I would assume that these symptoms are at indoor pools. The cause is thought to be elevated trichloramine levels in the air. Elevated trichloramine levels can occur from improper water chemistry, as mentioned, but there are other factors as well: poor ventilation at water level, large numbers of swimmers particularly if they dump excess nitrogen in the water such as from sweat or urine. A good summary from the CDC is available here:
I’ve had similar issues. I saw a few doctors that diagnosed it as asthma, where the cause was the highly chlorinated, poorly ventilated pool I swam in several days a week, for many months. Here’s an interesting article on the topic: http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/swim/chlorine/asthma.htm. The problem vanished after I switched to an outdoor pool.
Of course, as a disclaimer, don’t just rely on us ST MDs; get it checked out by a professional. 
Fulla,
I manage an indoor pool. Your issue is most likely the result of Chloramines. It’s basically the by products of what the chlorine is killing off in the water (all the nasty things that people bring into the pool each time they get in). These gases sit very low to the surface of the pool water. If the pool you swim in is not properly vented your sucking in this stuff as you breath. We added two large vent fans at the pool level and run them every night for 9 hours. Helps out tremendously. you’ll never rid the pool of this stuff but if folks would shower off before getting into the indoor pool and you have these fans it will make a hug difference. let me know if I can advise your pool folks on how to improve the air quality in your pool.
As noted above this is my take…no doc here so a check with your phys is a good idea as well…
+1 this. The pool I usually swim in has been learning as they go, and fought for years with this problem until they improved ventilation AND installed a better filtration system.
Fulla,
I manage an indoor pool. Your issue is most likely the result of Chloramines. It’s basically the by products of what the chlorine is killing off in the water (all the nasty things that people bring into the pool each time they get in). These gases sit very low to the surface of the pool water. If the pool you swim in is not properly vented your sucking in this stuff as you breath. We added two large vent fans at the pool level and run them every night for 9 hours. Helps out tremendously. you’ll never rid the pool of this stuff but if folks would shower off before getting into the indoor pool and you have these fans it will make a hug difference. let me know if I can advise your pool folks on how to improve the air quality in your pool.
As noted above this is my take…no doc here so a check with your phys is a good idea as well…
You could always keep the pool at breakpoint! Just kidding.
In summary… It’s not exactly the chlorine. It’s the gasses caused by chlorine’s reaction with dirt, body oil… basically the stuff chlorine is supposed to clean up. Those gasses need to be moved out of the air by a ventilation system.
There’s a local pool where I get the pool cough. It’s indoors and the ventilation system is kinda meh. But if I swim at the outdoor pool or the University’s pool with a mega-ventilation system, I have no problems.
Your cure is to either get somebody to fix the mix of chlorine and ventilation system, or swim somewhere else.
Fulla,
I manage an indoor pool. Your issue is most likely the result of Chloramines. It’s basically the by products of what the chlorine is killing off in the water (all the nasty things that people bring into the pool each time they get in). These gases sit very low to the surface of the pool water. If the pool you swim in is not properly vented your sucking in this stuff as you breath. We added two large vent fans at the pool level and run them every night for 9 hours. Helps out tremendously. you’ll never rid the pool of this stuff but if folks would shower off before getting into the indoor pool and you have these fans it will make a hug difference. let me know if I can advise your pool folks on how to improve the air quality in your pool.
As noted above this is my take…no doc here so a check with your phys is a good idea as well…
What he said.
Never swim after kid swim lessons or “family” swim hour. Like ever. Swim early AM when the pool just opens and it’s just lap swimmers.