How good is chlorine, really?

We finally had a sunny day yesterday!

So in honor of a sunny day, I took the kids to the pool. The place was jammed up. Daycare buses, families, grandparents taking photos of grandchildren, teens meeting up, women in high-heeled flip flops glad to not have to go to the tanning booth... the place smelled like a cross between Coppertone and chlorine. The unofficial scent of summer, I suppose.

So I settled into my chaise, perfectly positioned under a cypress tree for shade, and start to people-watch behind my sunglasses. I notice things that some people would call "judgemental" but others would call "attention to details." You decide.

• I saw a guy w/ a thin, stringy ponytail down his back, dripping water as he got out of the pool. Some of it was up under his hairy armpit. The rest of his hair was a nice, neat cut. The ponytail had to be 2½ feet long. He could have tucked it into his swim trunks.


• I saw a little kid sneeze, and in doing so, blow a great big snot bubble out of his nose. I wonder how often kids sneeze in the pool.


• I saw an old guy with big long toenails. These jokers were so long, I was surprised he could walk normally. Then I wondered how long since the skin under the outgrowth had seen the light of day.


• Finally, I saw a rastafarian-looking guy climb out of the pool. He was sitting near me. His hair was twisted into a bunch of ropes and pulled into a "bun" on the back of his head. His hair never got wet, even when he was under water. It rolled off like water on a duck's back. I flashed back to chemistry labs and tried to figure out what chemical reaction could keep his hair from getting wet.

So all these sightings make me wonder... just how good is chlorine at killing germs? How often are chlorine levels monitored and adjusted? Just how good is the pool's filter to filter out hair, skin, and snot? And am I crazy for letting my 2 kids get in that pool -- and joining them myself?!

About the time my upper lip started involuntarily curling in disgust, I decided to get over it. The human body is not a fragile organism ready to collapse at the first blow from some invading bacteria. We have a fine-tuned immune system that is vigilantly working to keep us safe. That, coupled with chlorine and maybe some swim ear drops, are probably all we need to relax, enjoy the pool on a sunny day, and quit worrying about catching something from the water.

Now, where's my sunscreen.....?