What To Do If You Accidentally Swallow Pool Water – A Guide

Chlorine is essential in helping to inhibit the growth of bacteria in the water of your fibreglass pool. You’ll need to add chlorine, as well as other chemicals to the water in your pool, to sanitize it. If you have a saltwater pool, then you’ll need to add salt to the pool which the saltwater chlorinator then turns into chlorine.

This makes chlorine indispensable when it comes to disinfecting the water in your swimming pool. Chlorine is also used to sanitize industrial waste and even sewage. You’ll also find chlorine as an active ingredient in various cleaning products. Even though chlorine is useful for your pool, you should avoid swallowing it as much as possible. Even if the chlorine is diluted by the water in your fibreglass pool, you should still avoid swallowing the diluted pool water.

What Happens When You Swallow Pool Water?

If you drink water in your melbourne fibreglass pool, this could be dangerous. This is as chlorine will end up reacting with the water that’s around you, and affects the mucosal surfaces that are within your body. This includes the water that’s present in the digestive tract. This leads to the development of hydrochloric acid as well as hypochlorous acid, within the body. Both of these can be very toxic for humans.

You should note that chlorine poisoning is not typically associated with swallowing pool water. It’s usually people who swallow more concentrated forms of chlorine, such as that present in household cleaners, that are at risk. However, if you do find yourself swallowing swimming pool water, there are still preventative steps that you need to take. You can get chlorine poisoning from the following:

• Chlorine tablets that are used in pools
• The water in your pool
• Certain household cleaners
• Products like bleach

What Are The Symptoms Of Chlorine Poisoning?

If you’re experiencing chlorine poisoning, then you’ll experience various symptoms in your body. This includes not just respiratory symptoms, but symptoms in your digestive tract as well. These are the symptoms that you could end up experiencing:

• Coughing
• Fluid in the lungs
• Difficulty related to breathing
• A burning sensation in the mouth
• The throat could end up swelling
• Pain in the throat
• Pain in the stomach
• Vomiting
• Stools that contain blood

If you’re exposed to chlorine, then your circulatory system can end up damaged as well. This could lead to:

• The pH balance of the blood that’s in your body could change
• Your blood pressure could become lower
• Your eyes could be seriously injured
• You could get blurry vision, a burning or irritating sensation in your eyes
• In extreme cases, you could end up losing your vision as well
• The skin could be damaged, as a result of tissue injury
• The skin could be burnt as well

How Is Chlorine Poisoning Diagnosed?

Diagnosing chlorine poisoning isn’t difficult, and people have been exposed to this condition over the years. A child could end up swallowing a cleaning product that contains chlorine. Diagnosing children can be a little harder since they don’t always know how to express what they are feeling.

It’s also more likely for a child to accidentally swallow pool water when compared to an adult. If any of your family and friends start experiencing signs related to chlorine poisoning, they need to be taken to the hospital immediately. It’s okay to accidentally ingest a little amount of water in your fibreglass pool. But when someone ends up swallowing a lot of water or consuming chlorine in its concentrated form. They need immediate medical attention.

How Is Chlorine Poisoning Treated?

Anytime you or your loved ones come directly into contact with chlorine, you’ll need to seek immediate medical assistance. You may need to indicate vomiting, but you should only try this if someone from poison control advises you to do so.

Should chlorine come into contact with your skin, then you’ll need to wash the area with soap as well as water. Note that this applies to concentrated amounts of chlorine. You’ll already be adding chlorine to the water in your fibreglass pool, to keep it sanitized. The amount of chlorine added to your pool water isn’t enough to damage your skin.

However, should your skin come into contact with concentrated amounts of chlorine, you’ll need to clean it immediately. Say you get chlorine in your eyes. If this happens, then you’ll need to wash your eyes using soap as well as water. Use running water to wash your eyes for at least fifteen minutes. If you’re wearing contact lenses, then take them out immediately. You should also remove clothing that was exposed to chlorine as well.

One thing you can do, anytime you accidentally swallow pool water, is drink milk. You can also try drinking water. If you start vomiting or experiencing convulsions, then you need immediate medical attention. People who inhale chlorine will need fresh air as soon as possible. You’ll need to go to the highest ground that you can reach, in order to get fresh air. This helps as chlorine tends to be heavier than air.

If you need to go to the emergency room, then your healthcare provider will first measure as well as monitor the vital signs of your body. They’ll check your pulse, temperature, blood pressure, breathing rate, as well as oxygenation. Doctors can also prescribe you sit the following to help your body cope with the chlorine:

• Activated charcoal
• Intravenous fluid
• Medications that are supportive
• Oxygen

Note that chlorine poisoning can have negative effects on the body. How badly it affects your body will depend on how concentrated the chlorine you were exposed to was.

Conclusion

If you accidentally swallow some of the water in your fibreglass pool, don’t panic. This is because it’s unlikely that the diluted amount of chlorine in your pool will have a negative effect on you. However, exposure to concentrated amounts of chlorine can be dangerous. If you find yourself experiencing any of the chlorine poisoning symptoms listed in this guide, you should seek immediate medical attention.