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Show by uninformed persons to public bathing places. . The board of health is thus placed in a rather peculiar po-I po-I sition. On the one hand we must ' encourage construction of swimming swim-ming pools and the development generally of the swimming sport, since this sport offers great opportunities op-portunities for improved public health, but on the other hand we must set up certain restrictions in connection with construction and operation of bathing places, not only for the purpose of discharging dis-charging our responsibility of j protecting public health, but also ! for the purpose of insuring the -swimming business against losses I due to unwarranted shut-downs as a result of wild rumors concerning con-cerning spread of diseases. We do not intend to take any chanc- ; Safety In Public Bathing Places From the Hoard j of Health Standpoint Presented by Lynn M. Thatcher, Director Division of Public Health Engineering En-gineering and Sanitation before Convention of National Recrea-I Recrea-I lional Association Salt Lake City. es in the face of a serious epide-I epide-I mic, and we therefore cannot assure as-sure pool managements that strict compliance with our regulations regu-lations will absolutely insure continuous con-tinuous operation, but we can ! say that the establishment of high standards of swimming pool operation and sanitation will automatically stimulate the swimming swim-ming pool business, and this with the whole-hearted support of the health department. I was quite amused the other day when I ran across a statement state-ment concerning the United States' first bathtub, which supposedly sup-posedly was installed in Cincinnati Cincin-nati about ninety years ago. The use of this bathtub created quite a discussion in the medical profession, pro-fession, and there seemed to be a decided division of opinion as to the resulting effect on the health of a person who should use a bathtub. A little later the City Council of Philadelphia defeated de-feated by a scant majority a proposed pro-posed ordinance prohibiting installation in-stallation of bathtubs. We know, now, of course, that, assuming the bathtub is used by one per- April 13 to 15, 1938. The Board of Health is naturally natur-ally interested in the operation of public bathing places because it is known that such places may, if not properly supervised, become be-come foci of infection potentially dangerous to all patrons. But this is not the only reason for the interest of the health department. Swimming is recognized as one of the most popular and most beneficial sports in existence. It offers opportunity for development develop-ment of the entire physique, and especially in our summer outdoor swimming pools this opportunity for complete exercise coupled with the breathing of fresh, outdoor out-door air is particularly conducive conduc-ive to good health. While there is available no direct di-rect evidence to indicate that infections in-fections have been contracted from swimming pools, it is agreed by most authorities that a pool in which modern sanitary stan- son at a time and that it is cleaned clean-ed thoroughly after each use, it presents no particular danger to health except that of slipping and breaking your neck. The swimming pool has apparently appar-ently passed through the same stages of opposition with a little more color added. Perhaps we might reasonably assume that the first public bathtub, or swimming swim-ming pool, as it was probably also called in those days, followed follow-ed the general acceptance of the private bathtub. However long ago this occurred, we know that today's swimming pool is something some-thing very different than the first one. Modern science and engineering engin-eering have given us the means whereby the public bathtub has been transformed into a pool of sparkling water, free from disease dis-ease organisms, and containing sufficient residual sterilizing n-gent n-gent to combat fresh pollution introduced in-troduced into the water. Development Develop-ment of the swimming pool to this stage has been slow and painstaking, each forward step being considered carefully, each new improvement being tested before final adoption. We know from past experience that such improvements will continue. dards are not met becomes very definitely a potential danger to the health of patrons. Definite establishment of the source of any infection is always difficult and sometimes impossible, for which reason we must be guided by theory, and opinion of those engaged in treatment and prevention pre-vention of such infections, for our conclusions as to dangers to health existing in various public places. The now familiar questionnaire ques-tionnaire sent in 1921 to various doctors throughout the country by the Joint Committee on Bathing Bath-ing Places of the American Public Pub-lic Health Association and the Conference of State Sanitary Engineers En-gineers indicated that a majority of the doctors circularized held swimming pools as imnortant fnc- tors in transmission of such diseases dis-eases as typhoid fever, gonococcal gonococ-cal infection, ringworm infection, colds, pinkeye, and boils. Since the time of this report, other investigations in-vestigations have been made, all of which substantiate the contention con-tention that improperly supervised supervis-ed and operated bathing places potentially endanger public health. heal-th. One other important fact, however has been established by the more recent investigations, The finger accusation is all too often pointed at innocent pools Naturally there are always some pools in which lack of proper operation and supervision presuppose pre-suppose existence of dangerous conditions, but there is no reason why all pools should suffer when an outbreak of infection in a particular locality is attributed i |