Persatuan Alumni AOTS Malaysia

C O N T E N T S

The President's Speech

List of PAAM new members

PAAM Branch in Malaysia - Sarawak, Sabah, Johor

Visit to PAAM Johor Branch

Kaizen Write-Up

HIPPO Family Exchange Program

HIPPO Participants Photo Gallery

Learn Japanese in 3 months

UPVC Roofing

Malaysian Pools and Chlorine

Upcoming Events Information

Wan Noor Hayati’s Farewell Dinner

Ms. Suhaila’s Farewell Dinner

MALAYSIAN POOLS AND CHLORINE

Background

Most of the pools in the country use chlorine in one form or another (calcium hypochlorite, sodium hypochlorite or TCCA ) as the basic chemical to sanitize their pools. This is the most basic and practical method of chemical sanitization. Other methods of sanitization like ozone and electrolytic process and UV means of sanitization is not common and forms a small percentage of sanitization. The usage of other chemical means is rather limited and the level of swimming pool maintenance in the country is still low as there is no special training institute or proper training program of such nature in the country so most of the skill of pool maintenance is from hands down knowledge from pool operator to pool operator who had learnt from previous experience.

Chlorine, as we had mentioned, is the most common and practical means of sanitization. In fact chlorine had been used for pool maintenance for many decades, as other chemicals are expensive or not effective or practical. The usage of granular chlorine is not the best means but it is the most economical and practical means. However, it has been found that there is some harmful by-products formed during pool chlorination in the pools especially in heavily used pools. This is so when chlorine reacts with the bodily waste products and other products like sun tan lotion, hair oil, etc from the swimmers to disinfectant by products (or DBP). Among the DBP, the more hazardous ones are two groups of chemical waste compounds like chloramines and trihalomethanes (THM) in the pools.

But lately, several scientific findings such as that by Dr. Alfred Barnard of the Catholic University of Louvain of Brussels and others had found that there is a high prevalence of asthma among children in indoor chlorinated pools. Other findings from Dr Sherwood Burge and Dr Kathleen Tickett from Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham, UK also came out with findings of high incidence of asthma among competitive swimmers in United Kingdom. The culprit that causes the high incidence of asthma to young children and also to competitive swimmers who spent long hours in the pools had been traced to mainly nitrogen trichloride , a type of chloramines among other DBP . Some forms of THM are also found to be carcinogenic and high exposure to this by pregnant women are found to produce adverse reproductive effects according to some of the studies carried out though the studies are not conclusive yet.

With this in view, DuPont had recently developed a new product called Oxone ( locally called Oxxone). Accot Technologies Sdn Bhd has the privilege of inviting the Technical Expert for Asian Region from DuPont International to give a talk on the importance of proper pool maintenance and the use of a this new chemical, Oxxone which will make the local pools a much safer place to swim in by the elimination of contaminant waste or the prevention of formation of chloramines and THM in the pool water.

Current

The introduction of Oxxone will mark a new milestone in the history of pool sanitization in the country though it has been used in the States for more than a decade, making our local pools to be a safer place for everybody to swim in. Oxone has also been used in other parts of Asia like Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. Elsewhere, other pools like Lancaster YWCA , Birmingham and other pools in UK and Europe and US had been using this new chemical for the last several years. Chlorine will still continue to be used in the pool but as a sanitizer as Oxxone will take the place of oxidizer as it oxidizes the waste bodily products so no or little chloramines will be formed in the pool water. In the pool water, chlorine carries dual functions, as an oxidizer to neutralize all nitrogenous waste and as a sanitizer, which controls and prevents the entry of algae, fungi and other microorganisms into the pool. Thus in other words, Oxxone act as an extra margin of safety in addition to chlorine chemical.

Oxxone usage will be most useful for training pools for adults and children and especially for swimming and diving athletes .It is also highly recommended for heavily used municipal and public pools and in condominium pools and hotel/resort pools with heavyusage. The use of Oxxone will replace about 25 to 30 % of existing chlorine in the pool but the additional cost of Oxone will justify the health aspect and make the pools a much less harzardous place to swim in.

Besides the use of Oxxone in swimming pools, it could also be used in spa and Jacuzzi or other indoor pools like fountains where bromine is used. Oxxone will replace part of the expensive bromine usage thus reducing cost. Here, THM and bromamine by products will not be formed as the Oxxone will oxidizes the bodily wastes . In the pool chemistry, Oxxone that forms one part and 2 parts of bromine, Oxxone oxidizes, or activates, bromide ion to bromine, which rapidly forms the active sanitizer hypobromous acid. Hypobromous acid is reduced back to bromide thus recycling the active bromine sanitizer over and over again. As bromine is expensive, Oxxone will reduce a great percentage of cost from bromine usage as bromine is being recycled in the spas over and over again at the same time cleaning up the bodily contaminants.

Editor’s Note:

PAAM is no way promoting or advertising this product. This article is also not to be seen as an advertisement for the product but to allow swimmers (both adults and children) to know the effects of such contamination.
Please contact the author, Mr. A.MTan for further clarification.