China Swimming Pool Crisis: 10% Of Pools Have Extremely High Urea Levels

China’s Health Ministry announced over the weekend that 10 percent of public swimming pools in China exceed the safe limit for urea levels. The study was released after the Health Ministry inspected 5,639 swimming pools in 24 Chinese provinces, municipalities and regions from June through August 2011.

The study found that 90.8 percent of swimming pools meet urea guidelines while only 83.7 percent have met the standard for “residual chlorine” content.

Research also determined that the total percentage of bacteria in a swimming pool can reach 92.3 percent while the rate of coli bacteria can be as high as 96.9 percent.

Chinese officials blame poor water circulation in their pools and state that refilling water has done little to help the overall situation.

After publishing their findings the Health Ministry began urging local departments to supervise urea and bacteria levels in their facilities in order to track and hopefully improve conditions at pools throughout the country.

Does it surprise you that so many pools are considered over contaminated throughout China?