As temperatures rose this summer – across Nebraska and the nation – the need to stay cool also grew as the demand for pools greatly exceeded expectations and retailers like Target, Walmart, and Amazon were selling out of inflatable pools, largely due to costs and set up.
The problem with inflatable and plastic pools, unlike their above ground and in-ground counterparts, is the lack of protection from bacteria and germs. As NBC News detailed in a story about inflatable pools in July, the news organization tapped Professor Xu Li for his expertise on how to keep germs and bacteria from spreading while owning an inflatable pool. Li told NBC News that frequently replacing water with fresh water helps keep pools safer.
“From a microbial safety perspective, fecal materials would be a major cause of contamination of the water,” said Li, professor of civil and environmental engineering and associate chair for graduate programs at the College of Engineering. “The fecal materials could be from children or pets playing in the pool and from birds that happen to leave droppings in the pool.”
Additional pool safety information for the story was provided by the CDC, which recommends the water in a small inflatable or plastic pool should be emptied daily, at least, and after emptying the water, all debris should be removed and the pool rinsed out with fresh water and air-dried completely before being refilled.
