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the pH has given the desired effect, but it remains necessary that
each problem be treated individually on its merits.
In swimming baths the maintenance of free available chlorine
residual will provide a safeguard of an entirely different order
when compared with older methods of sterilisation.
The rapid bactericidal action of free available chlorine will
materially reduce the danger of contamination being carried from
one bather to another in the pool. The break-point process will
effect the destruction of ammonia, and considerable benefits are
obtained from saving in coagulants, increased filter runs and a
great improvement in the appearance of the water. It has been
found that free available residuals up to 3 parts per million can be
maintained in the pool without any complaints from the bathers. A
number of swimming baths in England are now equipped for breakpoint
chlorination, and the results have been so encouraging that
if the experiences to date are substantiated in further work, it
seems likely that break-point chlorination will become the recognised
system for the treatment of swimming bath water.
Break-point chlorination with careful and accurate pH control
may be readily introduced into any swimming bath, the only
essential being provision of correct and adequate equipment.
Samples of the bath water are tested each day by the Baths
staff and in addition, the Medical Officer of Health arranges for
samples to be sent to the laboratory for analysis.
Summing up, the chief essentials of a modern water treatment
plant, such as is installed in the Council's public bathing places,
are to provide a constant supply of water, clear and sparkling in
appearance and sterilised against any possible infection of disease.
Finally, it should be said that although everything possible is
done by the baths authorities to maintain a 'safe' standard of
bath water, the bathers themselves can be of great assistance in this
direction by the observance of personal hygiene."