Vomit and swimming pool

I'm being thick here but why does this mean you dont wear goggles any longer?

You've reminded me of the time some kid chucked up on the edge of the pool while waiting to go in for his lesson and the teacher just got a bucket of water and sloshed it into the drain on the side. He was about to let the kid into the lesson when someone called out from the viewing area that perhaps it wasn't a great idea and could the parent collect their child instead. I asked at reception afterwards and they did not see the issue at all - even though there was something in the T&C about not going to lessons for 24 or 48 hours after V&D but two minutes after was clearly no big deal to anyone except me and the lady who called it out from the poolside.

Vomit is food and drink plus a bit of stomach acid and the pool is full of chlorine so it wouldn’t bother me that much. Swimming pools have a high level of exposure to bodily fluids because of their very nature - snot, dribble, sweat and wee all go in there.

Vomit being in a public pool filter system is the least of your worries. Every splash of water has been between several arse cracks, under many ball sacks, through a good few fanny flaps before it gets on your face. Pools in general are vile.

I still remember the mortification when my child swallowed water, coughed and then threw up in the pool. We all had to evacuated and the pool had to be cleaned. I thought that was the procedure everywhere.

You said friend's pool was 'closed and vacated for draining' after a code brown - very unlikely that's what's happened, that's what I was responding to.

The situation you describe is disgusting and not the right way to clean up for infection control. But it's very very unlikely that a pool would be drained, ever.

Vomit gets scooped out, then they super-chlorinate, adjust the chemicals, and keep the filtration running.
Draining a pool would waste thousands of litres of water and take days (weeks sometimes) to refill, rebalance, and reheat. It can also the pool structure to collapse in on itself.

They only ever fully drain for major repairs or structural issues.

It’s chemical treatment plus closure for a set time, not emptying the pool.

I would highly recommend lifeguarding for young people - primarily because it is one of the few jobs that is actually easy to get because most leisure centres are crying out for staff. It is also reasonably well paid and generally not very demanding unless there are loads of children in tbe pool.

Both my DCs did it and worked in the school and university holidays at the leisure centre. DC2 actually has 2 jobs - 1 at uni and one at home.

Also, they both learnt so much - both are fantastic at cleaning and both organised the cleaning in their respective student flats in a similar way to how they had learnt in the leisure centre (ie on a rota - daily jobs, weekly jobs, monthly jobs etc). Both also became far more confident in talking to adults they did not know and also made new friends. Oh and certainly on our leisure centre, free use of all the facilities and classes. Both started going to the gym when they became lifeguards.

I don’t know that pool and don’t fully know what you mean but I very much doubt that would be the correct procedure. Just send management a polite note or ask to speak to the duty manager. Just tell them what you saw and ask if that is the correct procedure because you were worried that it was unhygienic. They should be very happy to answer that. Leisure centre staff are usually lovely, by the way.

<off topic but an amusing anecdote>

DC2 aged about 4 months decided the end of a swimming lesson was a good time for 3 day poonami. The swimming nappy had never seen anything like it and frankly may as well not have been there.

I had to carry DC2 along the poolside, trailing liquid shit, while the swimming teacher told the toddlers waiting for their class to start that it was cancelled - and they all burst into tears. It was my most embarrassing parent moment ever.

That did close the pool. 18 years later, DC2 was a lifeguard in that very pool!

I agree, that’s totally unacceptable.
Surely they have biohazard spillage kits (usually some sort of bleach powder they can sprinkle over the bodily fluid and then scoop it up?) The thought of rinsing it back into the pool has made me feel sick.

Ex lifeguard here. The pool chemicals zap pretty much all bugs otherwise we would all get ill every time we went in a pool. Believe me, there are MUCH worse things left on or near pools than vomit. A

In the pool I worked in, vomit went into a yellow biohazard bag so I very much doubt that lifeguard was following his training so you probably should drop the management a note so they can remind him of the correct procedure.

Children frequently vomit in the pool due to swallowing water. The only time we would ever shut the pool was if somebody vomited in the water and they were ill. If that happened we would close tbe pool for long enough to be 100% certain that it was totally clean.

Vomiting on the side just needs cleaning up - takes 5 minutes so doesn't need a pool closure.

That’s disgusting.