# Would you get into an indoor pool at the gym? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2015, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611 "2015-01-12T05:44:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/61 "2015-01-15T01:54:28Z")
I have no problems with an indoor pool but I do wonder if any bacteria has figured out a way to survive in chlorine treated water? I assume the answer is no but just curious. ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/62 "2015-01-15T02:14:39Z")
You should worry most about parasites like cryptosporidium, which can live for days in a properly chlorinated pool. > **[cryptosporidium-factsheet.pdf](https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/pdf/swimming/resources/cryptosporidium-factsheet.pdf)** > > 425.25 KB Also, E. coli was found by the CDC in over half of the pools in Atlanta in 2012. [http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6219a3.htm](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6219a3.htm) They blame people’s improperly washed butts. ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/63 "2015-01-15T02:24:40Z")
> [@PurpleClogs](#): > > My doc suggests I use a pool to exercise, easier on the joints. I do belong to one of those giant gyms with an indoor pool. You can go in for a swim anytime, but they also have scheduled water aerobics classes. > > I’m hesitant because I feel the place is a cesspool of infection. I’m no germaphobe, but I’m clean and want to remain that way. > > Am I being silly? Would you get in a gym’s pool? Have you? Any warnings besides wear flip flops? Any horror stories? Smell the air when you go to the pool area, if it smells like bleach you’re probably OK, or ask to see the logs of the pool chemical maintenance. A buddy’s family used to manage a hotel with a public pool and a certain specific ethnic group of people would use the pool to literally bathe, taking soap and shamoo and everything and do their bathing business in the pool. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/64 "2015-01-15T02:25:11Z")
We have a local lake swim area that gets shutdown every summer for periods due to bacteria but of course there is no chlorine there. ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/65 "2015-01-15T02:32:08Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > You should worry most about parasites like cryptosporidium, which can live for days in a properly chlorinated pool. > [http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/pdf/swimming/resources/cryptosporidium-factsheet.pdf](http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/pdf/swimming/resources/cryptosporidium-factsheet.pdf) > > Also, E. coli was found by the CDC in over half of the pools in Atlanta in 2012. > [Microbes in Pool Filter Backwash as Evidence of the Need for Improved Swimmer Hygiene — Metro-Atlanta, Georgia, 2012](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6219a3.htm) > > They blame people’s improperly washed butts. I also blame people’s improperly washed butts, for a lot of things. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/66 "2015-01-15T02:39:48Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I have no problems with an indoor pool but I do wonder if any bacteria has figured out a way to survive in chlorine treated water? I assume the answer is no but just curious. [Yup.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1058053/). Most studies are largely concerned with drinking water, though, not pools. Pick an environment, any environment, and you’re going to find bacteria. Not just in swimming pools, but in containment pools at nuclear reactors. We’ve found bacteria in the Dead Sea (tons of it, actually), deep sea thermal vents, under thousands of feet of ice in Antarctica, the bottom of the Mariana Trench (well, probably; we’re not sure), mine tailings, the driest, hottest places on earth, the coldest, wettest places…We tend, understandably, to view life through the lens of macrofauna. We’re really limited in where we can live; our teeny tiny cousins, not so much. If you’re at all interested in the Wikipedia article on [extremophiles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile) is a good place to get started (and, if you’re me, lost wandering from one fascinating thing to another). ---
**Author:** ![PurpleClogs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@PurpleClogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleClogs)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/67 "2015-01-15T04:06:46Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > . They are going to yuck up the pool with their gross hair, boogers, fecal leakage, bacterial/viral/fungal infections, urine, hair products, toenails, deodorant, soap scum, band-aids, fake eyelashes, perfume, conditioner, parasites, and occasionally even vomit, whether you like it or not. If I were swimming with all that, I’d vomit too. ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/68 "2015-01-15T05:10:10Z")
Now I’m having second thoughts about ever going in a pool again myself! ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/69 "2015-01-15T05:24:41Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > Now I’m having second thoughts about ever going in a pool again myself! I tried editing my last post but was too late. I don’t swim, but if I was forced to swim in either our local river or a gym pool I would probably choose the pool, I wouldn’t ever swim or bathe in a big city river, maybe up near the glaciers but damn that would be cold. A friend asked what I would do if he threw me off the side of a boat and into a river. I asked him what he would do if I choked him into unconsciousness before he was able to do it… and believe me I know how to knock somebody out with one hand without hitting them, it only takes a second, if that; he had no response. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/70 "2015-01-15T08:52:06Z")
Pool! Indoors! Just checking. I think the coast is clear. _(No, Buford! The tater goes in front! … **What??!7?!1?C!** )_ ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/71 "2015-01-15T15:40:42Z")
> [@vomit\_comet](#): > > A friend asked what I would do if he threw me off the side of a boat and into a river. I asked him what he would do if I choked him into unconsciousness before he was able to do it… and believe me I know how to knock somebody out with one hand without hitting them, it only takes a second, if that; he had no response. So, registering your hands as deadly weapons— can you do that online now, or does it still have to be done in person? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611/72 "2015-01-15T16:06:38Z")
Of course I’d have no problem with it (to the OP). If British people didn’t swim in indoor public pools hardly anyone would be able to swim. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-get-into-an-indoor-pool-at-the-gym/709611.md?page=3)