Better access to pool records

Gazette Editorial Board

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A recent Gazette investigation shows that improperly maintained pools and hot tubs could threaten to splash cold water on families' fun in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor. Health and safety violations have forced closure of one in five swim facilities in Linn and Johnson counties in the past two years, according to a Gazette analysis of hundreds of inspections.

Hotel pools are significantly overrepresented in those numbers. Some hotels failed several inspections during the years The Gazette reviewed.

That information should be made easily available to potential pool users. But it isn't.

Improperly maintained pools can put users at risk for rashes, infections, and gastrointestinal and other diseases.

And if hotel pools around the state are host to such a disproportionate number of violations, let's review Iowa's training and inspection requirements for operators to make sure they are sufficient to protect public health and safety. This review should include the steps and appropriate severity of sanctions for repeat offenders.

Currently, most swimming pools, hot tubs, wading pools and waterslides that are open to the public are required to pass one surprise inspection each year. Inspectors check water chemistry, maintenance, emergency procedure and pool records.

If inspectors find serious violations, the facility is shut down until the problem is fixed.

Hotels own about one-third of the licensed pools and hot tubs in Linn County, and about 40 percent of those in Johnson County, yet they accounted for about 80 percent and 67 percent of the closures in those counties, respectively.

Bad chemistry - such as improper disinfectant levels or a pH imbalance - was the most common cause for closure in records The Gazette analyzed.

Some facilities were closed after the water tested positive for dangerous pathogens - such as E. coli or fecal coliform - which are controlled through proper water chemistry.

Public health departments reported complaints of rashes and infections suffered after swimming in facilities that were later found to have little or no chlorine, or burns suffered from swimming in facilities that used too much.

Yet there is no easily accessible database of pool inspection reports for consumers to check before they decide whether or not to patronize a particular facility. We think the state public health officials, with legislative support as needed, should change that. Food safety inspections have been available online for years, to help consumers make informed choices about where they want to eat.

We see no reason that the same information about publicly licensed pools shouldn't be made easily available.

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