How Much Urine in Swimming Pools?

Image courtesy of Exsodus at  FreeDigitalPhotos.net In 2013, I wrote a blog article about how much fecal matter (i.e., poop) is typically found in swimming pools (up to 2.2 pounds in a typical pool if 100 different people enter the pool). We now have an estimate of how much urine (i.e., pee) is found in a typical pool. According to Canadian researchers , a 220,000 gallon pool, which is about one-third of an Olympic-sized pool, had 75 liters of urine while another smaller pool (110,000 ga…

Continue Reading

How to Dry the Ears if Water Gets In

A common question we get asked is what is the best way to dry out the ear if any water gets in? Method #1: I typically suggest using a pain old hairdryer to dry out any water that may be in the ears.  However, there are also commercial ear dryers for purchase including a manual air pump for the ear canal called Dryears . Also available is an electric ear dryer called EarDryer which also works quite well. Method #2: Another common remedy is to put a few drops of rubbing alcohol (isopr…

Continue Reading

Swimming Pools, Poop, and Ear Infections

So here's an interesting statistic... The average person has 0.14 grams of feces on their rear end. If a person does not shower prior to swimming, that 0.14 grams of stool gets washed off into the swimming pool. Kids tend to have a bit more stool on their rear end (up to 10 grams). See references below. That means if 100 individuals enter the swimming pool in any given day without showering beforehand, anywhere from 14 grams to 1 kilogram of stool enter the swimming pool water (0.03 - 2…

Continue Reading

To Ear Plug or Not to Ear Plug

Seems like a fairly simple question... but oh what controversy it stirs up when regarding a patient with ear tubes who wants to go swimming. There are two schools of thought... 1) Based on evidence and research, no need to wear ear plugs... ever. The argument... Well, here's the research: A meta-analysis of swimming and water precautions. Water precautions and tympanostomy tubes: a randomized, controlled trial. A meta-analysis of swimming and water precautions. The effect of w…

Continue Reading

Amoeba Deaths from Neti-Pot Use and How to Minimize Risk

In the past few weeks, there have been numerous stories about the 2nd death in Louisiana from Neti-Pot use leading to an amoeba infection of the brain. The culprit organism Naegleria fowleri causes a life-threatening encephalitis after passing thru the nose and up into the brain where the organism eats neurons for food. As such, recommendations have been issued to use water as instructed with the Neti-Pot packaging... water should be boiled, distilled, or filtered. However, before the mi…

Continue Reading

Our Office Now Carries Ear Band-Its Swimming Headband!

Due to numerous patient requests, our office now carries in stock the swimming headband called Ear Band-Its that helps keep ear plugs in and water out when kids go swimming. Too often during swimming, the ear plugs get knocked out or in spite of a parents' best efforts, water seems to get by the plugs. Though swimming caps over the ears would work/help, most kids refuse to wear them. However, kids don't seem to mind wearing headbands as it apparently is "cool." Made of 3mm…

Continue Reading