Prestigious American School Chooses UV to Treat Its Pool Water
22 August 2006
Since a Hanovia UV system was installed to treat pool water at the prestigious Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania, USA, athletes who normally used inhalers because of chlorine by-products no longer need them.
According to the swimming coach Richard Shoulberg, trainer of over 15 Olympic swimmers, "Many of our athletes were having respiratory problems due to the heavily chlorinated water and I felt I had to do something. I secretly had the Hanovia UV system installed without telling the athletes and the results have been amazing. The athletes stopped needing inhalers as the atmosphere around the pool was suddenly much better, with none of the throat and eye irritations or unpleasant smells commonly associated with indoor chlorinated pools."
UV works by destroying chloramines (also known as combined chlorines), which are a by-product of chlorination and are responsible for these unwanted side-effects. Chloramines are also corrosive and can damage the infrastructure of indoor pools. An additional benefit of UV is that it is highly effective at destroying microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses present in pool water.
"In Pennsylvania we still have to use chlorine, even with UV, but this can now be kept to the lowest possible level," continued Shoulberg. "On a normal day our six lane, 25 metre pool has a bather load of 360 people, but for eight weeks in the summer this rises to over 750 a day. The Hanovia system has no problem dealing with these loads. It is also virtually maintenance free – we have only had to change the UV lamp once since it was installed three years ago."
"I would be happy to recommend UV to anyone. It helps the environment by reducing our reliance on chemicals and also preserves the fabric of the building. I am so impressed with the Hanovia system that I've recommended to our pool contractors that they include UV in any proposals for new pools."
