{"id":6311,"date":"2024-07-17T12:59:25","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T16:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/blue-ridge\/?page_id=6311"},"modified":"2025-06-24T15:06:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T19:06:53","slug":"recreational-water-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/blue-ridge\/recreational-water-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe Swimming in Open Recreational Water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You can get swimming-related illnesses if you swallow, have contact with, or breathe in mists or aerosols from water contaminated with germs. You can also get them by having contact with<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/196\/2024\/07\/shutterstock_2284299711-1.jpg\" width=\"293\" height=\"196\" \/> chemicals that are in the water or that evaporate from the water and turn into gas in the air.<\/p>\n<p>Diarrhea is the most common swimming-related illness. People who are already sick with diarrhea can spread it to others when they get in recreational water. People typically have about 0.14 grams of poop (similar to a few grains of sand) on their bodies at any given time. When a person who is sick with diarrhea gets in the water, that tiny amount of poop on their body can wash into the water around them and contaminate it with germs. If someone else swallows the contaminated water, they can become infected.<\/p>\n<p>Other swimming-related illnesses\u2014such as\u00a0skin, ear, respiratory, eye and other infections can be caused by germs that naturally live in the water and soil. If the chemicals used to kill germs (chlorine or bromine) in pools, hot tubs, and water playgrounds are not kept at the right level, these germs can multiply and make swimmers sick.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/healthy-swimming\/prevention\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;\">CDC Swimming Related Illnesses<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/waterborne-hazards-control\/beach-monitoring\/\">Beach Monitoring in Virginia-Waterborne Disease<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/healthy-swimming\/safety\/how-to-safely-visit-oceans-lakes-and-rivers.html\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;\">CDC-Healthy Swimming in Oceans, Lakes and Rivers<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can get swimming-related illnesses if you swallow, have contact with, or breathe in mists or aerosols from water contaminated with germs. You can also get them by having contact [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6311","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Safe Swimming in Open Recreational Water - Blue Ridge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/blue-ridge\/recreational-water-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Safe Swimming in Open Recreational Water - Blue Ridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You can get swimming-related illnesses if you swallow, have contact with, or breathe in mists or aerosols from water contaminated with germs. 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