from the chlorine, that is.
My son and I go swimming at least twice a week, and I’m beginning to wonder what the extended exposure to chlorine is doing to my eyes. Sometimes it gets so bad that the burning sensation lasts for an hour or so after getting out of the pool.
Does anyone know what the long-term effects of exposure to swimming pool chlorine are?
I have always heard that burning of the eyes is not because of the chlorine but the lack of it anyone out there know?
If you can’t convince them, confuse them.
Harry S. Truman
When I was on the swim team in high school it was rumored that putting olive oil in your eyes would keep them from getting as much exposure to the chlorine. I never tried it though. It was simpler to wear goggles.
“To do her justice, I can’t see that she could have found anything nastier to say if she’d thought it out with both hands for a fortnight.”
Dorothy L. Sayers
Busman’s Honeymoon
When I had a pool, it was my understanding that the PH balance was what would cause eye burning, not the chlorine level. I kept both in the proper range and never had the problem, so I can’t say for sure.
When I was a kid, my friends and I put in some long days at the public pool. When the burning got to us, we’d run into the ladies’ room, fill the sinks with cold water and dunk our heads, opening our eyes under water to flush the chlorine (or whatever). It worked for us. Maybe some soothing eyedrops would do the trick for you.
I tried some basic saline eyedrops, and it burned worse.
Hmm. If it isn’t the chlorine, I wonder what it is?
Asemayo said: When the burning got to us, we’d run into the ladies’ room…
Well, I could try that. It would make me forget about my eye problems–at least until security arrived.
But seriously, I’ll try the face dunking method next time.
I think the deal is, adding a bunch of chlorine to a pool messes with the pH. Good pool people then check the pH to make sure it is balanced, and then add extra ingredients if it isn’t. I am guessing chlorine makes the pool more acidic, so you add some kind of a mild base to neutralize, but maybe they add a buffer. Anyway, not everybody is very diligent about checking pH, so a lot of pools are just like swimming in diluted stomach acid. That hurts your eyes.
Whether a pH-balanced chlorinated pool would be totally harmless, or just less harmful, I don’t know.
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