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Blog: Henrik Bechmann's Blog

Who needs soap anymore? New Parks, Forestry & Recreation Aquatics wading pool "safety" standards have been implemented that would make your hair stand on end (if it survived).

Some attendants say that up to triple the chlorine is used compared to previous years, as much as a full 2kg container of Aqua Shock granules per day. The chlorine level measurement device they use measures up to 5ppm in the water, and attendants' instructions are to keep the pool level to 5ppm (used to be 2-3ppm or so), so of course when they measure, they are just assuring that it is at a minimum level of 5ppm. In one pool, I asked for a reading at the end of the day, and it was still (a minimum of) 5ppm, a couple of hours after treatment. So it must have been much higher at the time of treatment. Who knows how high it gets?

The result? The pool surface material is getting bleached. Weird.

So if you ever run out of soap, just take your kids to the wading pool for a dip. That'll do it. Heck, maybe you could hand-wash that nasty bedsheet while you're at it.

Mixing chlorine granules and water