Is Chlorine Safe for Your Eyes?
What's up ePoolSupply supporters and fellow blog enthusiasts! Summer is right around the corner, and we are all getting ready for BBQ and swimming. Some of us swim with our eyes open while having fun in the pool with our friends and family. A question we get from time to time is if chlorine is safe for us. Short answer - YES; however, it is still a chemical that should not be consumed and is used to help protect us.
What is Chlorine?
First, let us start with what chlorine is. Chlorine is an element that is part of our periodic table. It has been around forever. Today, we use chlorine to sterilize water and wastes and as a bleaching agent. Chlorine is a dangerous chemical and should be used carefully. So, what does this mean for us? You will need chlorine to keep out algae and bacteria that can accumulate in your pool. Your pool is a giant bowl of water, and without the chlorine, your pool can be a breeding ground for other things that can harm you. If you’ve had eye surgery, stay out of the pool or avoid putting your head underwater for at least two weeks after surgery.
Should We Swim with Our Eyes Open Underwater?
This is a question more suited for your doctor; however, we recommend eye protection before swimming. Swimming without eye protection has been known to cause eye irritation. Chlorine dehydrates your eyes and as mentioned above, removes the tear film. This results in blurriness and occasionally distorted vision, but it's usually only temporary. The redness occurs when the blood vessels near the surface of your eye become larger and then dilate. (Optimax Eye Surgery)
Chlorine is vital to your swimming pool and spa maintenance needs. It keeps your pool and spa clean, clear, and free of additional elements that can cause harm to you and even your pets. We recommend making sure you are testing your chlorine and ph levels every week to maintain the proper water treatment for your pool. With summer coming around the corner, higher heat can evaporate the chlorine quickly, allowing bacteria and algae to form quickly.
To help keep your pool and spa maintained and clean, we recommend checking out chlorine floaters and a testing kit to help keep and maintain to the proper levels. Below are some links for a good testing kit and chlorine floater. For chlorine tabs only sold locally here in Arizona (we cannot ship them), please get in touch with ePoolSupply at 602-274-7946
Taylor Technologies Safety Plus Test Kit
Hopefully, you found the information in this blog to be useful and we also hope we were able to answer any questions you may have had as it pertains to this subject and your pool system. If we didn’t, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly, our team of industry professionals is always happy to help you out! As always from all of us here at ePoolSupply thank you for reading along and keep on swimming!
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