Too much chlorine, headaches, nausea

[mida68]

We recently hired a pool guy to keep the pool clean and balanced. However, before that, we had a hard time keeping the chlorine levels up so we had the generator at about 70% in an attempt to move the levels.

After the pool guy took over, I ignored the levels and % and I guess he left it alone so the other day, we all went into the spa and swimming and I noticed a high chlorine smell. Later that day two of us had headaches and nausea and I noticed that after a shower, my skin still reeked of chlorine.

So today, I dug out the test kit and the chlorine color is actually a dark orange! It's supposed to be pale yellow!

Needless to say, I will get on the pool guy but just wondering if anyone else has had these symptoms and if there is a way to get better faster

Thanks!

[CarlD]

You need to go to the testing and chlorine forums and read the stickied posts.

I frequently run my FREE chlorine levels up to 8 or 10ppm with NONE of those effects.

It sounds suspiciously like you have something else going on, like high combined chloramines.

You need to get your water tested for the following items:

pH
Free Chlorine
Either Combined Chloramines or Total Chlorine (not the same thing)
Total Alkalinity
Stabilizer/CYA/Cyanuric Acid
Calcium Hardness.

Start there. Also list the size (in gallons or liters if possible) and type of your pool (vinyl, fiberglass, gunite/shotcrete/plaster/etc).

High levels of free chorine (the good stuff) do not have the effects you describe.

[mida68]

Thanks Carl, I will take a water sample to the pool store to make sure it gets tested right. I'll print out your sticky and your suggestions as well.

I don't know what could cause headaches but I know if I use too much bleach in regular house cleaning, I do get nauseated and generally feel "poisoned" which is how I felt after sitting in the spa.

I thought since the water was hot which opens pores, all that extra chlorine might have made us ill.


Thanks for the pointers...

[CarlD]

Well, in your house you are breathing bleach in an enclosed space, pools are different.

The classic bleach smell comes from combined chloramines: CCs.

Whenever Free Chlorine, FC, metabolizes something it leaves behind CC. More FC will break that down.

So, my pool will be 7 or 8ppm of FC, but have no chlorine smell. I get in and get out and I smell a bit of chlorine--the FC has metabolized whatever contaminants are on my skin--dirt, sweat, suntan lotion, aftershave, bacteria (gasp! ), etc.

Yet while I was in my skin didn't bother me, my eyes probably didn't bother me (more a function of pH than FC), etc.

However, if the chlorine in a pool is breaking down lots of stuff, there were be a lot of CC in the water. That stinks like bleach, irritates your skin and your eyes. This is not good, either for you or your pool.

Chlorine metabolizes lots of stuff, but what you REALLY want it to kill is bacteria and viruses. So if it's metabolizing all sorts of other stuff, it may consume all your FC leaving your water vulnerable to infectious stuff. That's why algae is SO bad. It not only makes your water ugly, all your chlorine gets used up killing it and you have NOTHING to protect you from the dangerous stuff.

So, after all this long-windedness we come back to proper testing, knowing what those tests mean, and how to get your water sweet and sanitary again. Too much chlorine is held up as a boogie-monster by lots of people, and blamed for lots of problems for which it's not responsible. 99.99% of all the problems we see here come back to folks not yet knowing the basics, and having to UN-learn a lot of nonsense that pool stores and pool chem companies distribute.

Finally, there's no magic to good and easy pool care. But there's no substitute for understanding what does what in your water, and knowing how and when to act to adjust it. Our stickies on BBB and getting rid of algae as well as other topics try to communicate this. It actually all makes sense.