Watch Out! Water!

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/63358/title/DNA-damaging_disinfection_by-products_found_in_pool_water


ABSTRACT WEEK 3
SUMMARY:

Recent studies have shown that swimming in your pool might not be as safe as what you think. Scientists have found that some of the chemicals in chlorine and other disinfectant chemicals that you put in your pool could contribute to damage in DNA cells. Since disinfecting agents are designed to kill germs, it also seems to produce mutangenic chemicals. Scientists have found that low concentrations of DNA-damaging chemicals have been isolated from drinking water in the past, but never has it been found in pool water. Until now. They tested swimmers to see if the chemicals effected them and found that the rates of DNA mutations were low, and could potentially be fixed. And although swimming is a healthy, fun activitiy…there are some negative attributes that aren’t recognized, like this. Scientists have found that even though the chemicals could for low counts of mutagens, that this problem is not life threatening. But it’s still good to take precaution and after swimming in a chlorine, and chemical filled pool to shower thouroughly to remove all of those chemicals.

APPLICATION:

I think from this study I am most definatly going to take a longer shower than usual after I get done swimming. I just find this kind of thing a little scary, and even though it is found in low counts I still do not want my DNA to be messed with. I think that scientists will soon find ways to disinfect a pool without having these kinds of side-effects. And seeing that there have been the same kind of chemicals found in drinking water is even scarier. But I guess that it is kind of like a win-lose situation. If we don’t have these chemicals it would be a lot worse towards our body, with all of the sweat, urine, and skin particles floating around in the pool it is a risk that we are going to have to be willing to take, because the side-effects from swimming in contaminated surely would be worse. I hope that scientists will soon find a chemical that will be less damaging to our DNA, but still gets rid of the germs found in pools.


R. Gent