Plastic fibres in Toronto pool highlight gaps in maintenance oversight

Theglobeandmail.com
Aug. 14, 2015
By Cybele Sack

At the popular Alex Duff outdoor swimming pools at Toronto’s Christie Pits, people swam in water containing shredded plastic fibres from a fraying pool liner that according to experts could prove a threat to public safety.

The incident has put a spotlight on how the city’s gaps in oversight of pool maintenance exposes the public to hazards.

Strands of the transparent plastic with a cling-film-like texture were suspended in the water like jellyfish, tangling around swimmers’ legs and floating slowly to the surface. Swimmers in the middle of its three pools wiped the plastic from their legs as they exited, leaving it littered in clumps around the perimeter of the deck. Pool staff said it about took two weeks in July from the time the fibres started surfacing at the beginning of the month until the 25-metre lap pool was finally closed to the public and drained.

Alex Duff is one of the more popular pools in Toronto, attracting families from the downtown core, according to city aquatics manager Aydin Sarrafzadeh. Mr. Sarrafzadeh says the pool gets more than 650 visitors per day during the summer months.

On July 15, the pool was drained to deal with the liner problem. When Mr. Sarrafzadeh saw the condition of the empty pool, he says he was alarmed. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my 20-year career,” he says. “It’s certainly a hazardous environment to swim in.”

In response to a public complaint, Toronto Public Health inspector Sam El-Hajjeh visited the pool on July 20 and found strands of the fibre remaining in the pool’s skimmer baskets.

The pool remained closed for two weeks, while the maintenance team applied a sealant to the entire pool as a short-term fix in order to mat the liner’s strands down. Mr. Sarrafzadeh says it is the first time the parks department has used this sealant so they will have to monitor its effectiveness.

Mr. El-Hajjeh returned to the pool on July 28 before it was filled and was satisfied that the liner appeared to be sealed properly and that no fibres were found in the pool skimmers at that time. But when he inspected the next day, after the pool was filled, he found more in the skimmers. Despite that finding, Mr. El-Hajjeh gave the pool a pass to reopen the same day. He recommended in his report that the pool skimmers be checked and cleaned every 30 minutes over the next few days to determine if the problem was continuing or getting worse.

No notice was posted to inform the public about the potential risk when the pool reopened. “We don’t typically put up a sign asking people to let us know if there’s a little bit of something that looks out of the ordinary ... that would be a lot of different signs we’d have to put up in the event that something goes wrong,” Mr. Sarrafzadeh says.

Anthony Doukas, owner of Metro Pools, says swimmers have a right to know what they’ve been exposed to. “In the past, certain plastics had stuff in it that are carcinogenic in small amounts and are mutagens ... Is [the liner made of] something that we’re not using [now] because regulations have changed?” he asks.

Possible toxins in older pool liners include styrenes, phthalates and heavy metals like lead, depending on whether the liner is fibreglass or PVC, and what year it was made. Suspended in the water, the fibres may pose a choking hazard as well as a danger if ingested. According to the Poison Control Centre, styrenes and phthalates can cause nausea and diarrhea and swallowed plastic can pose a risk of intestinal blockage.

The chemical composition of the liner at Christie Pits is unknown as records are incomplete, but Mr. Sarrafzadeh believes it may be up to 18 years old. Maintenance manager Peter Kozovski guesses it is fibreglass rather than PVC, based on “whatever the strands are,” he says. “Vinyl pools do not have any strands at all, they are just solid vinyl. All that one will do is rip.”

Toronto Public Health manager Mahesh Patel says the city’s parks department is not required to notify Toronto Public Health about hazards. Outdoor pools are only inspected twice each season; if there is a health hazard at any other time, it is up to the public to flag it. The city does not replace pool liners on a schedule according to their age, instead changing them only as they fail, due to the cost of renovations. Mr. Kozovski says a similar methodology is used to maintain skating rinks and water fountains. He adds the city intends to replace the liner before next season.