"Dangerous" levels of chlorine

[Queequeg]

I just used Trichlor pucks for a week while I was gone on vacation, and in reading the side of the "jug" they came in, it said to "never enter a pool with a chlorine level higher than 3 ppm". I keep my ppm higher than 5 most of the time (here in AZ we run our CYA a bit high because of all the sun).

Any guesses as to why it says this on the trichlor label? I thought maybe it was for pools without CYA, but it actually says to adjust the CYA to an appropriate level further on in the instructions.

 

[JasonLion]

That is a very old rule from before CYA. It is still appropriate if you don't have any CYA in your pool. Since you are using CYA, just ignore it.

 

[waste]

They say it to avoid lawsuits

:blah: Because our lawmakers know less about pool's than a braindamaged monkey, they rely on industry professionals to tell them what the requirements should be - unfortunately, the professionals don't really know 'Jack' about most things either - the end result is that there are 'rules' that haven't been scientifically tested/ studied which are made into law :grrrr: Fortunately there are 2 sites I can name that cut through the industry BS and try to find the 'truth' so that pool owners can have a Trouble Free Pool (You're logged on to one of them now)

The 'don't enter pool water with 3+ cl' is old school advice - chem geek has a few posts on the fallacy of this when the cya level is taken into account - (it's probably wrong with no cya anyway). The other issue is whether it's tc>3 or fc> 3> I've somewhat of a 'grasp' on the concepts involved here, but not enough to fully explain

 

[257WbyMag]

The toxicity of chlorine is more related to its effects when it is inhaled than anything else. It is a strong oxidizer in its pure state and a strong asphyxiant (it displaces oxygen causing suffocation via respiratory arrest). Wikipedia mentions that the gas can cause symptoms of toxicity in levels of 30 ppm or higher but this is the gas and not the chlorine that is dissolved in water. It is probably safe to say that swimming in pool water with chlorine levels much higher than 3 ppm would be safe. Skin is an intact surface and I would think that it would be unlikely that we would accumulate chlorine by absorption through the skin. Your lungs will tell you whether or not it is safe. That's my best guess anyway.

Hope this helps.

Craig

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I remember the first time my froggy malfunctioned, dumping the entire bac pac of tri-chlor into my pool in 48 hours, instead of lasting the normal 3-4 weeks. My chlorine was off the chart, at least a 10. I freaked! I was dumping water, replacing with fresh, couldn't get it to drop for 2 days. Hot weather was forcasted....we wanted to swim! So I went the the pool store to ask the "expert" there what I could do to lower the chlorine, I was desperate!.....he's like, "oh, you can swim in that"..."but, but, everything says ONLY swim if FC is 1-3 ppm!" "Nah, he says....it's fine. Just take a shower. Wear an old suit."

Gosh, I look back to my pool experiences pre-TFP and I just shake my head at the patheticness of it all... .

 

[Guest]

As far as it goes the State of Florida (and many other State Health Departments also) will allow a commercial pool or spa to open once the FC drops below 10 ppm after shocking and that is also reflected in the newer CPO handbooks. Arch chemical now says to keep FC levels between 1-4 ppm on their products (HTH and Poollife) and wait for shock levels to drop below 10 ppm before entering the water.