BioOx Helps Prevent Lifeguard Lung

Indoor Swimming Pool Respiratory Illness Can Be Avoided

At long last, after a difficult, frigidly cold and stormy winter season, fair weather is once again upon us. While gentle temperatures have returned, in most of the country, spring and summer bring nearly as many rainy days as sunny days, so indoor pools and aquatics centers still get plenty of daily use.

Unfortunately, fully enclosed indoor swimming pool facilities are often associated with overpowering chlorine fumes that cause eye, skin and respiratory distress. Lifeguards are often the most affected by coughing and breathing issues, spending up to eight hours a day exposed to chlorine fumes. The term “lifeguard lung” (LGL) has been coined to explain a phenomenon in which lifeguards experience an immune response, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which causes inflammation of the lungs. Classified as a “sick building syndrome,” symptoms typically resolve when lifeguards avoid shifts at indoor pool facilities (Source: LifeguardTV.com, June 26, 2019).

While LGL is named for lifeguards, anyone spending time at an indoor pool without a  satisfactory system in place to eradicate airborne chlorine fumes and irritants, can become affected with the painful symptoms of LGL, which include shortness of breath, chest pains, eye irritation and swelling and severe headache.  Clearly, it is not an experience any aquatics facility manager would want lifeguards, athletes, members or guests to associate with their indoor pool.

BioOx® Keeping Pool Air Safe...Naturally

So, how do indoor pool operators keep facility air completely clean and free of harmful fumes and irritants? How can the symptoms of LGL be avoided for all patrons of indoor swimming pools? The answer is BioOx®.  BioOx is a 100 percent natural microbial enzymatic solution that neutralizes chlorine fumes and airborne irritants in indoor swimming environments via a bio-oxidation process, creating a healthy, constant clean air zone. BioOx is the world’s first and only biological air scrubber that completely eradicates the smallest micro-particulates that comprise airborne bacteria, viruses, odors, fumes, contaminants and toxins.

How BioOx® Works

The BioOx enzyme attracts toxic micro-particulates such as those produced by chlorine and its by-products, as well as viruses, dust, gases, and bacteria that constantly circulate in indoor spaces. A bioreactor unit containing the proprietary BioOx enzymatic microbial media attracts these airborne toxins, causing an immediate bio-oxygenation process that fully DESTROYS odors and airborne contaminants. Any contaminants the BioOx media cannot fully break down and eradicate (such as metal particles) fall to the bottom of the reactor where they become inert disposable sediment. BioOx systems fully decontaminate indoor air, rendering agents such as chlorine fumes and byproducts, viruses, bacteria, dust, ammonia, and formaldehyde harmless. 

Why aquatics facilities directors choose BioOx

Aquatics facilities directors and swimming coaches across the U.S., including New York University, Emory University, Princeton High School, Hagerstown YMCA and others have turned to BioOx to provide a permanent CLEAN AIR ZONE in their swimming facilities –- a clean air zone that will enable athletes, lifeguards, and leisure swimmers alike to avoid respiratory distress and ocular and dermatologic irritation, empowering them to deliver their best performance every single day and thrive a healthy clean air environment.

While extremely popular, standard air filtration systems -- even those created with HEPA technology -- do not eradicate chlorine gases, fumes and byproducts that cause lung, eye and skin irritation for swim athletes.

Even the most expensive standard air filtration systems do not effectively break down and destroy the smallest of airborne particulates -- those that cause chlorine fumes and exposure irritation -- as only BioOx does. BioOx effectively, efficiently, and relatively inexpensively, destroys the smallest of micro-particulates down to those measuring 0.0001 microns. HEPA technology can only capture microns as small as 0.3 and has no ability to destroy pollutants since HEPA technology cannot SCRUB the air as only BioOx does. When toxic particulates hover in and circulate throughout the air in a confined space, not only do we breathe them in and compromise our lungs, but micro-contaminants most readily transmit through our eyes, not our lungs, creating an especially significant challenge in safeguarding our overall health -- a principal reason why swimmers experience chronic eye irritation during training and competition. 

BioOx reactors emit a natural enzyme to SCRUB the air, creating a CLEAN AIR ZONE in your pool area or any other part of your facility, such as locker rooms, offices, cafeterias, etc. Best of all, BioOx technology, while extremely powerful in its performance, is simple and compact, without need for an arduous “installation: the quiet units simply plug into electrical outlets. No drilling, construction, rewiring or filter maintenance of any kind is necessary. Every facility is already BioOx-ready!!

For a demo of the BioOx® technology, contact the BioOx® team at (301) 246-0151 or send us an email through our website.