It’s hot, it’s humid, it’s definitely summer. When summer hits there is one thing on everyone’s mind, water. Cool water is what makes the summer sun tolerable, and well fun. Swimming in cool fresh water as the sun heats up is one of the best parts about the scorching hot season. However, if you’re not careful, what started out as all fun and games could soon become serious health risk.
What follows below will explain how you can protect yourself and your family from a variety of water related dangers.
The Dangers
Now, swimming in itself can be dangerous if you are unexperienced. However, there are many tools to help individuals with little to no swimming skills stay afloat in times of distress. On the other hand, these safety devices only protect individuals from visible or foreseeable dangers in the water. What of the unseen health risk.
Stomach Bugs
While swimming, the last thing on your mind is contracting a stomach bug. However it is unfortunately quite common for individuals to become very ill just by getting a few drops of unclean water into their stomachs. Stomach bug often cause cramping and vomiting, which if occur while in deep water (such as in most pools) can be very dangerous and even life threating.
Stomach bugs usually infect young swimmers who venture into water contaminated with bacteria or parasites. Further symptoms of a stomach bug include: diarrhea, fever, nausea, and vomiting. While chlorine may kill most germs that cause water illnesses, it is not guaranteed to kill all harmful bacteria and germ.
Skin Infections
While in unfamiliar waters your skin could be at serious risk. Swimming in water that could be contaminated with various chemicals could put your skin at serious risk for irritation or worse, infection. Germs in the water could also prove to be a threat to your epidermal health.
While it is less common for germs to infect the skin micro cuts on the body could allow for these dangerous germs to pass through your skins protective layer.
Swimmer’s Ear
Swimmer’s ear might not seem like a big health concern but when you consider that wet conditions in the ear canal encourage bacteria growth, it is easy to see how swimmers ear could be a big problem.
Swimmer’s ear occurs when water gets into and stays in the ear canal, washing away your protective coating of earwax.
While treating an ear infection caused y swimmer’s era is not all that difficult it can be a very harsh experience to go through.
Ten Prevention Tips
- Don’t let people with diarrhea or upset stomachs go swimming.
- Wash yourself thoroughly with soap and water before and after you go swimming.
- Go to the bathroom regularly while swimming.
- Avoided coming into contact with fesses throughout the day, if you do troche waste wash your hands thoroughly after changing diapers and using bathrooms.
- Try rubber pants over diapers to prevent leaks in pools or lakes.
- Shower your children before entering a pool, and rinse them off after leaving the “kiddie pool” and before entering the main pool or hot tub.
- Never submerge your head in a hot tub. High temperatures can harbor microorganisms, and an earful of water from a hot tub can cause an ear infection.
- Try not to swallow pool water.
- While swimmer’s ear is healing, wear a shower cap over your ears while showering to keep them dry.
- Listen to signals from your body. If you experience pain, cramping, or fatigue when swimming, exit the water immediately
By following these simple tips you can keep yourself active and cool in the pool this summer.
