Niki McClure, Sean Kelly, Ryan Bippus, Alaina Goldberg, and Erych Frankenfield
The swim team has not just competed with other schools this swim season — they have also been challenged by their own pool’s conditions.
Penn-Trafford opens the newly renovated pool for the 2016-2017 school year.
Penn-Trafford’s swimming and diving team were able to practice and compete in a newly renovated pool area this school year. However, the excitement of a newly renovated pool area quickly faded as approximately five swimmers issued formal complaints to the school board and others were experiencing similar issues.
Assistant superintendent Scott Inglese responded to the situation and explained the concerns received by parents and students.
“The complaints we got were skin irritations, coughing, loss of hair — eyebrows, hair on the arm was disappearing which is terribly scary,” Inglese said
Inglese clarified that the complaints came in two separate waves: Once a couple weeks after the pool opened in the beginning of the year, and another directly at the end of winter break going into the first week back.
At both times, the same health concerns and complaints were brought up. So what was causing all of this?
The effects of the chlorine on the swimmers is different than dry skin and a slight green tint or blonding of hair common for “summertime swimming.”
Inglese said the brand new air handler that P-T installed on the roof of the high school was not working properly in the beginning of the school year. It took a couple weeks to get the air handler running, and once it did, the complaints that were previously made subsided.
However, on Dec. 28, the bearings in the air handler burnt up on the roof of the high school. No fire was created, but it did, as Inglese explained, create a smoke odor in the pool area.
“It took almost a week to get them fixed because they had to get parts. So we did get that fixed right around the first day back to school. But during that time it was down, again, now we get those complaints again — parents are complaining, kids are complaining,” Inglese explained.
P-T has their own employed individuals who maintain the pool. They are state certified to test and maintain the pool. B&R pools oversees many of the school and public pool facilities in the Pittsburgh area, and they come to P-T once a week.
“They [B&R Pools] come in once a week and do their test just to make sure that we’re doing ours correctly and that they match and everything. So, they’re testing our tests,” Inglese said.
The school has always checked the chemical levels of the pool each day and continues to do this, especially taking extra care during these problems.
Swim coach Dave Babik said he has never seen this before in his years of coaching and is also confused with the pool test results.
“I was a pool manager for like 20 years, so I have experience in pool chemistry,” Babik added.
Babik’s experience with managing the chemicals in pools led him to ask about the results of these tests. He said he worked with Inglese and James Bracco, the business and grounds manager for the school district. The results that they saw continued to come back normal.
Problems persisted, though. The ventilation system was said to have been fixed, but Babik said he had been using large fans to push air through the water and over the area. However, Babik said he was asked to stop doing this because the ventilation was supposed to be running correctly again.
Babik ventilates the pool area with large fans.
On Saturday Jan. 15 he stopped using the fans for the first time and his swimmers began coughing again part way through practice.
Both Inglese and Babik agreed that there are two problems here — the ventilation and the pool’s chemistry. Whether the two are related is still the unanswered question.
Babik said he believes they are connected.
“If we don’t have good ventilation, it can affect the pool chemistry.”
A part of the problem was the chloramines in the pool. Chloramine, a combination of nitrogen, hydrogen and chlorine, causes respiratory problems and skin problems such as itching, flaking, bleeding and skin discoloration. It cannot burn off in water, so heating the water beforehand will not treat the problem. Chloramine can cause rubber to degrade faster, lose elasticity and crack.
The initial complaints went first to P-T athletic director Kerry Hetrick, who helped with the rest of this situation for the months following.
A layer of chloramine gas sits on top of the pool due to poor ventilation.
Hetrick said regardless of pool conditions, swimmers should always take any precautions necessary.
“It is important that you shower before and after you get in the pool” because the nitrogen you bring into the pool from your hair gel and skin flakes combine with the chlorine and hydrogen to create chloramine, he said.
Hetrick said that the school has some newer, more accurate testing kits for the pool that they are going to utilize to tell if the pool is indeed dangerous at times.
“We check the pool every day and would never let anybody in if it doesn’t meet the safety standards,” Hetrick said, and added they have been and will continue to be very cautious when it comes to student safety.
The few times the pool has been shut down is because “our measurements or our readings weren’t what we wanted or needed them to be” added Hetrick.
Several student swimmers were impacted by this.
“One of [the affected swimmers] did have to go to the dermatologist, so they were removed from the pool X number of days/weeks, to make sure their skin healed up and make sure it was better,” Inglese said.
Other swimmers said they experienced other health problems, as well. According to senior Emma Winchell, she suffered hair loss because of the chloramine, including her eyebrow hair as well as the hair on her arms.
Senior Megan Vareha said she was prone to irritated skin due to the pool but the chemical levels worsened her condition. Both swimmers complained of trouble breathing.
Neither one is quite sure when the chemicals began to cause problems. Vareha said she noticed the changes a few weeks into the season.
Winchell’s hair is on its way back now, but the ordeal did not change her work ethic.
“[The situation] did not affect my swimming. I still went to practice everyday,” said Winchell.
Vareha said she is continuing to struggle.
“It’s an ongoing problem in the water,” Vareha said referring to her irritable skin.
Vareha remained optimistic about the situation.
“It is a new facility and we are doing our best, but I am excited about the new technology.”
The P-T School District continues to monitor the pool and the people that go into the pool. Inglese said the school’s main concern is the safety of their students.
Inglese said, “We obviously want to make sure the health and safety of the kids are first and if we think the pool is in any way shape or form going to be harmful to the kids we’re going to shut it down.”