A new study from Belgium has found that children face an increased risk of developing bronchitis and asthma if they swim in indoor pools as infants. The study's results appeared in the June issue of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Pediatrics is now suggesting that this could be reason to avoid letting your infant swim in indoor pools. According to the Belgian researchers: "Our data suggest that infant swimming practice in chlorinated indoor swimming pools is associated with airway changes that, along with other factors, seem to predispose children to the development of asthma and recurrent bronchitis."
 
The researchers studied 341 Belgian schoolchildren between 10 and 13 years old and discovered through blood samples and lung tests that the children who swam in indoor pools as infants had reduced lung function as well as a higher risk of asthma and recurrent bronchitis.

The study found that trichloramine - a chlorine byproduct that gives indoor pools that "chlorine" smell - is one of the most concentrated air pollutants to which children of developed countries are regularly exposed. The study asserts that this pollutant along with other aerosolized chlorine-based oxidants can be associated with airway changes that predispose children to asthma and recurrent bronchitis later in childhood. They encourage more study and possible regulation of the air quality in the indoor pool environment.

The study didn’t consider outdoor pools, but as we recommend in The Complete Organic Pregnancy, if you want to swim indoors, be sure to investigate the ventilation; some pools are bound to do a better job than others at airing out the noxious gas.

-Deirdre