Occurrence of bromide and bromate in chlorinated indoor swimming pools, and associated health risks

Abstract

Swimming is a physical activity that is accessible to people of all ages in all seasons. However, continuous organic and inorganic precursor load and disinfectant dosing make pool water chemistry much more complex than other disinfected waters. Carcinogenic bromate compound is one of the hundreds of disinfection by-products in pool water. The occurrence of bromate in pool waters depends on the precursor content of filling water, the disinfection process, operating parameters, and the purity of disinfectants. While the average filling water bromide concentrations of University Campus indoor swimming pool in Gülbahçe –Urla (SP1) and Buca public indoor swimming pool (SP2) were determined to be 182 ?g/L and 11.0 ?g/L, respectively, the average bromate concentrations of SP1 and SP2 were 59.4 ?g/L and 68.3 ?g/L. Estimated chronic-toxic health risks of accidental ingestion of pool water during swimming (between 10 -3 and 10 -1) were lower than the threshold level (‘1’). Although the carcinogenic risks in central tendency scenario (<10 -6) indicate negligible risks for swimmers, worst case scenario indicates carcinogenic risks (medians were ranged from 1.61×10-6 to 9.42×10-6) for highly exposed specific swimmer groups. Bromate accumulation in swimming pools needs attention for mitigating the health risks for swimmers.