If something was published in scientific literature 50 years ago, you simply go online (or have a librarian) go online to find the paper. The upside is that scientific, scholarly publications never go away! This is an awesome thing since today’s scientists can determine the edge of scientific knowledge and push forward. This reduces wasteful duplication. The down side is that scientific, scholarly publications never go away!
How prosperous do you think the pool and spa industry will be in 10 years if every year a handful of publications come out that “suggest” exposure to pool water (or the air above an indoor pool) may cause cancer or asthma? I emphasize the word “MAY!” Not that it does, it just “may.” That has been going on for several years; it is not likely to stop. Many of the studies did not have any information on how the pool was operated (disinfectant level, type, bather load, filter type, fresh air make up, …). Pretty scary stuff to have people making life decisions based on a research protocol that can’t be duplicated.
This year, NSPF jointly funded researchers to develop a questionnaire to make sure future researchers ask the right questions and give information about the pool used in the research. With that information, we can start formulating solutions – rather than being falsely labeled as “bad.” This questionnaire will be presented at the 2012 World Aquatic Health™ Conference (WAHC). Five leading scientists from around the world (Reynolds – U of AZ, Blatchley – Purdue, Kogevinas & Villanueva -Barcelona, & Plewa -U of IL) will help us all understand reality from “news hype” on the relationship between disinfection by-products and health.
