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American Morning

Health Around the Pool

Aired June 06, 2003 - 08:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Centers for Disease Control has some healthy advice for those planning to cool off at the local swimming pool. Sanjay Gupta is off this morning, so Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is at CNN Center -- please, Elizabeth -- to tell us more. Good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, as summer is upon us, parents especially should be concerned about whether or not the pools they take their children to are safe. Unfortunately, in 1998, for example, at Whitewater Park in Atlanta, two children died because of E. coli infections in the water and dozens more became ill.

And the CDC says that every year, they're seeing more and more gastrointestinal illnesses because of swimming. Now, let's take a look at a new report. What the CDC did is that they looked at counties in five different states to see what kind of violations there were -- these were public health departments that were inspecting pools -- 22,131 pools were inspected, and 21,561 violations found. That's obviously a huge number. The problems included things such as chlorine that wasn't kept at proper levels, chemicals that weren't being used properly, and filters that weren't being taken care of properly.

Now, they didn't find that there were actual infections in all of these cases. In fact, probably in very few of them. But what they found is that the pools were not being maintained properly. And so what the CDC says is that when you go to a pool, you should check it out. You can talk to people there. You can ask how many times they're inspected. You can see here that on average pools are inspected only one to three times per year. That's not very much. The CDC says, really, it's up to the pool, people who maintain the pools to keep a watchful eye on it, and so parents should be aware of this.

KAGAN: Those numbers are pretty discouraging. It sounds like if there's a pool, there's a problem, but are there certain typed of pools that tend to be dirtier than others, Elizabeth?

COHEN: Yes. There does tend to be one type of pool that tends to be dirtier than others, and when I say it, you'll know immediately why. And those are those kiddie wading pools, those little shallow pools, sometimes just a foot deep, where kids wade. And the reason for that is who goes into those pools? Children who are not yet toilet trained, and so -- well, accidents do happen, and that's the major reason why those tend to have more infractions. In addition, because those are such shallow pools, just a little bit of something going wrong can unfortunately go a long way -- Daryn. KAGAN: And besides potty training their kids, is there anything parents can do to protect their kids, Elizabeth?

COHEN: Yes, absolutely. What parents need to watch out for is that if their children -- or an adult also has diarrhea they should not go swimming. No matter how careful you might be -- I know it sounds like an obvious thing to say -- if you or your child has diarrhea, do not go swimming. And in addition, don't tell your children, Don't swallow the pool water. Kids will do crazy things. You need to really instruct them not to swallow pool water. That's what happened at Whitewater, why so many children got sick. Also, take frequent bathroom breaks so that you don't have accidents -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Elizabeth, thanks for pointing out for what might appear to be obvious, but the summer season is upon us, and we need to be reminded of that -- Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: Absolutely. Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired June 6, 2003 - 08:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Centers for Disease Control has some healthy advice for those planning to cool off at the local swimming pool. Sanjay Gupta is off this morning, so Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is at CNN Center -- please, Elizabeth -- to tell us more. Good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, as summer is upon us, parents especially should be concerned about whether or not the pools they take their children to are safe. Unfortunately, in 1998, for example, at Whitewater Park in Atlanta, two children died because of E. coli infections in the water and dozens more became ill.

And the CDC says that every year, they're seeing more and more gastrointestinal illnesses because of swimming. Now, let's take a look at a new report. What the CDC did is that they looked at counties in five different states to see what kind of violations there were -- these were public health departments that were inspecting pools -- 22,131 pools were inspected, and 21,561 violations found. That's obviously a huge number. The problems included things such as chlorine that wasn't kept at proper levels, chemicals that weren't being used properly, and filters that weren't being taken care of properly.

Now, they didn't find that there were actual infections in all of these cases. In fact, probably in very few of them. But what they found is that the pools were not being maintained properly. And so what the CDC says is that when you go to a pool, you should check it out. You can talk to people there. You can ask how many times they're inspected. You can see here that on average pools are inspected only one to three times per year. That's not very much. The CDC says, really, it's up to the pool, people who maintain the pools to keep a watchful eye on it, and so parents should be aware of this.

KAGAN: Those numbers are pretty discouraging. It sounds like if there's a pool, there's a problem, but are there certain typed of pools that tend to be dirtier than others, Elizabeth?

COHEN: Yes. There does tend to be one type of pool that tends to be dirtier than others, and when I say it, you'll know immediately why. And those are those kiddie wading pools, those little shallow pools, sometimes just a foot deep, where kids wade. And the reason for that is who goes into those pools? Children who are not yet toilet trained, and so -- well, accidents do happen, and that's the major reason why those tend to have more infractions. In addition, because those are such shallow pools, just a little bit of something going wrong can unfortunately go a long way -- Daryn. KAGAN: And besides potty training their kids, is there anything parents can do to protect their kids, Elizabeth?

COHEN: Yes, absolutely. What parents need to watch out for is that if their children -- or an adult also has diarrhea they should not go swimming. No matter how careful you might be -- I know it sounds like an obvious thing to say -- if you or your child has diarrhea, do not go swimming. And in addition, don't tell your children, Don't swallow the pool water. Kids will do crazy things. You need to really instruct them not to swallow pool water. That's what happened at Whitewater, why so many children got sick. Also, take frequent bathroom breaks so that you don't have accidents -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Elizabeth, thanks for pointing out for what might appear to be obvious, but the summer season is upon us, and we need to be reminded of that -- Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: Absolutely. Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com