Evaluation of some physico-chemical parameters and fungal contamination of indoor public swimming pools in Urmia in 2001

Indoor public swimming pools are one of the most popular recreational places for people. The water in swimming pool may be responsible for transmission of fungal diseases.The purpose of this study was to determine the types of fungal contamination and some physico-chemical parameters. The fungal pollution of four public indoor swimming pools were evaluated by using membrane filtration and carpet sampling method in a period of one year. Samples were collected by a plastic pump in 200 ml sterilized bottles. A total of 384 water samples and 100 samples from surronding places of each swimming pool were tested for the presence of fungi in different seasons during one year. Some physico-chemical parametres such as; temperature, residual chlorine, PH, turbidity and also the number of swimmers were studied.Resuls: Fungal pollution were detected in 48 (12.5%) water samples. The most common fungi recovered were as follows; candida (22.9%), Rhizopus (4.16%) and Aspergillus (56.2%). Other fungi such as; filamentous (16.6%) and yeast species (2.8%) were also isolated from water. Alternaria, cladosporium, philophara and trichophyton mentagrophytis were isolated from dressing rooms and bath rooms of swimming pools. The average temperature, PH, residual chlorine and turbidity of water were 29.9, 0.6 ppm and 0.8 NTU, respectively. According to our results, it seems that the occurrance of some fungal species known to be opportunistic pathogens in public swimming pools may be related to the number of swimmers, residual chlorine concentration and the swimmers with fungeal infection. It is recommanded that the managers of swimming pools consider the standard level of chlorine, environmental sanitation and personal hygiene of swimmers as important preventive factors.