Public health danger - Pools and spas must be monitored

TAXPAYERS’ money is helping to fund a potential danger to public health on a wide scale, simply because the Government is indifferent to the possibly lethal bacteria in hundreds of swimming and spa pools around the country.

Despite the ‘Blue Flag’ system which indicates the cleanliness and safety of water at beaches, there is nothing of an official nature in place to monitor pools, although the hazards have been repeatedly pointed out to the Government.

For whatever reason, no legislation exists governing these facilities from this aspect, which means standards cannot be enforced, and there are some that never get inspected.

Those dangers were graphically illustrated only last week when a spa pool attached to a Donegal hotel tested positive for legionella. It was pinpointed only through an elderly patient being treated for the disease in a Derry hospital who had stayed in the hotel.

He was being treated for the pneumonia-like Legionnaires disease which occurs in this country more frequently than may have been generally realised.

In the last five years there have been 34 cases of Legionnaires disease reported in this country, and at least two instances have proven fatal.

The reason why the Donegal pool, and others similar to it, was not checked by environmental health officers was for the simple fact that they do not have the statutory powers to do so until a complaint is lodged.

It could, conceivably, be too late at that stage, but incredibly there is no government department currently responsible for monitoring the quality of the water in public or privately owned commercial pools.

Quite sensibly, all over the country ground and surface waters are strictly checked for polluting elements and those responsible are held accountable where applicable.

Yet, thousands of people use pools every day of the week and they are used by young children in the course of the school year as well.

What they do not realise is the extent of the threat to their health posed by every time they step into one of those pools.

The general public may have been under the impression that strict regulations applied in these facilities and the testing of water quality was carried out routinely, especially when it could possibly impinge on public health to an inordinate degree.

Insofar as any monitoring is conducted, it is done so on a voluntary basis in a ‘White Flag’ scheme under the aegis of the Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management Ireland Ltd (ILAM), but this is for leisure facilities.

Apart from that, it is more like a quality mark, being endorsed by Fáilte Ireland and the Irish Hotels Federation and is a factor in funding.

Even so, ILAM estimates that there are approximately 500 pools, of which only 86 have the quality mark, and the rest are merely being tested sporadically.

One of the problems for the Environmental Health Officers Association (EHOA) is that they do not have a statutory function in this area, which means they can make recommendations, but not enforce them.

One recommendation that has been persistently ignored is that the Government should introduce statutory legislation in pools and spas, as well as other areas of public health.

The sooner it does, the better will be public health.