Toronto pools and hot tubs at luxury condos, high-end health clubs and children’s swim schools have repeatedly violated public health and safety rules, potentially exposing bathers to injury and disease.The Toronto Star obtained public health data outlining more than 10,000 violations by pools and spas over the past two years. Operators are not required to disclose reports, leaving bathers in the dark.
The list includes Yorkville’s Stillwater Spa, Branksome Hall, an all-girls private school with an annual tuition of nearly $30,000, and Extreme Fitness, with more than 120 violations at two locations.
The data reveals some serial offenders, violating the same regulations month after month with little penalty or public knowledge.
In one case, a luxury Willowdale condominium’s hot tub racked up 75 infractions in two years. Five times it was cited for failing to keep equipment in “sanitary” and “working order.”
In May, Toronto Public Health closed the pool at Graydon Hall Manor in Don Mills. The pool, which offers adult aquafit classes and “diaper-fit” classes for babies, incurred 25 infractions in two years. Inspectors cited chronic safety violations.
“If it’s not operating properly, it has the potential to seriously injure or even kill someone, and it’s not something we take lightly,” said Mahesh Patel, a manager with Toronto Public Health.
Poorly maintained pools can be breeding grounds for bacteria, infecting people with serious gastrointestinal illnesses.
Unlike Toronto’s DineSafe program, which requires city eateries to post inspection results in their front windows, there are no such rules for pool and spa operators. A Star investigation 10 years ago into widespread food safety violations inspired the program, which recently won Toronto Public Health an international consumer protection award.
“If you’re going to get into a pool, immerse yourself in water, you should also know that that pool meets the standards,” said epidemiologist Michele Hlavsa. She works in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s healthy swimming program.
In the United States, more than 4,100 people caught water-borne diseases from outbreaks in pools, spas and water parks in 2005 and 2006, according to CDC research.
Canada doesn’t track this data on a federal level.
“Just because you’re not seeing as many in Canada might be because no one is looking for them,” Hlavsa said. “No one is making the connections.”
Three to four cases of intestinal illness related to pools and spas are reported to Toronto Public Health each year. City officials said these illnesses are under-reported and believe the actual number is higher.
Toronto’s worst offender is a small hot tub inside a three-year-old condo that promises “boutique living.”
Dia Condominiums, managed by Brookfield, collected 75 infractions over two years. Most of the city’s 1,644 public pools and spas had just one or zero infractions in that time period.
Property manager Ken Chan, who has worked in the industry for more than 20 years but took over Dia this year — said it’s not uncommon for new buildings to have “a lot of small glitches” to work through.
“Everything has been rectified,” Chan said.
In Don Mills , Peter Thimio was scrambling for answers.
The owner of Big Pete’s Swimming School has been operating out of Graydon Hall Manor since 2006.
The pool netted dozens of health and safety infractions before it was shut down in May for what the city considers a very serious violation. It was missing a black disc that is supposed to be affixed to the bottom of the pool at its deepest point as a signal of water clarity. If it is not visible from the deck, bathers should not enter the water.
The pool reopened a day later but is currently closed because of other problems.
“It has nothing to do with me,” said Thimio by phone. He was in tears.
Judy Walter, a property management administrator at Graydon Hall, told the Star it has not operated the pool for more than a year.
“Peter is responsible for all maintenance issues,” she said.
Thimio insists he is not responsible in “any capacity.” He said he has a landlord but would not identify the landlord.
He threatened legal action and advised a reporter to “conduct yourself accordingly.”
Branksome Hall, cited for black disc, water clarity and chemical balance issues, said it welcomed city inspections because they help ensure a safe environment.
“As soon as they make a notation of any issue, we jump on it,” said Julia Drake, the school’s spokesperson.
Stillwater Spa, twice found to be missing safety equipment, did not return the Star’s calls for comment.
The data shows improvement at some locations. In 2009, the Windsor Arms Hotel had 15 infractions, including one for the unsafe storage of chemicals. The Yorkville hotel had no violations the next year.
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The fact that a pool has an infraction “doesn’t make it a bad pool,” said Sylvanus Thompson, a manager with Toronto Public Health.
But properties that make the same mistakes over and over again “are the ones we would be targeting because they’re not learning,” he said.
Health inspectors can close a pool for a variety of violations: the water is cloudy; emergency equipment, such as a spine board or two buoyant safety rings, are missing; pool outlets covers are loose or missing.
But once an operator has fixed the problem, the pool is reopened.
Since 2009, more than 300 pools were closed for serious violations, including faulty mechanics, missing emergency equipment and dirty water.
However, the city can’t fine pools for serious infractions, as police would with a speeding ticket.
Some pool operators accuse city inspectors of being overzealous.
Allan Guiste manages pools and hot tubs for several Extreme Fitness locations. Two ranked high with multiple infractions on Toronto Public Health’s data.
“It’s been hell,” Guiste said. “They have to find something.”
Extreme Fitness on Yonge St. just north of Sheppard Ave. E., has two hot tubs and a lap pool. It received nearly 90 infractions over two years for failing to maintain safe and sanitary conditions and keep proper records, among other problems.
The downtown location on Wellington St. W. near York St. has been hit with 40 infractions, including repeated citations for improper chemical balance of its whirpool. Some of those infractions, Guiste said, involved chlorine or alkalinity levels being just a few points off.
“We do a really good job,” he said. “You just don’t argue with inspectors.”
All of the issues have been resolved, he said.
Public health’s Patel dismisses suggestions that inspectors are trigger-happy with citing infractions.
“These are regulations,” he said. “Our duty is to ensure pools are in compliance. Things like this we take very seriously.”
What looks mundane on an inspection report — like a hot tub’s vacuum release system not working properly — can present a serious threat.
In 2001, 13-year-old Michael Botelho drowned after he was suctioned to the bottom of a hot tub in a Scarborough condominium.
Two months ago in Boston, a woman’s dead body lay unnoticed at the bottom of a public pool for two days as other bathers swam in the milky water. Investigators said the pool should never have been opened on the day she drowned because the water was too murky.
“It’s pretty black and white,” said Marilyn Lee, a Ryerson professor in the School of Occupational and Public Health. “The regulations are actually there for a reason and it’s to prevent these tragedies and illnesses from happening.”
Chief among those safety measures is keeping on top of the pool’s pH, a measure of the acidity. The pool water should be balanced between 7.2 and 7.8. A lower pH level can be corrosive for equipment and swimmers.
But any higher, the chlorine becomes less effective at killing pathogens and bacteria. As more swimmers enter the pool, introducing urine, sweat and suntan lotion, the chlorine level drops.
“It’s like we’re all getting into one big bathtub together,” Hlavsa said.
Inspectors found 635 incidents of improper pH levels in Toronto pools and hot tubs in two years.
The root of pool problems is poor training, said Tom Lachoki, CEO of the Colorado-based National Swimming Pool Foundation, a non-profit, safety-awareness group.
“The health officials are really only there a short time — a day, a few hours a day, over the whole season,” he said. “Who is the person really protecting swimmers health? It’s the operator.”
In Ontario, there are no standardized training requirements.
A superintendant at a Scarlett Rd. apartment said he was briefly shown how to test the pool’s pH level and add chemicals as needed. But that is the extent of his knowledge.
He looks after the pool and its problems — the change room’s floor tiles are cracked and there are signs of mould on the walls — in between his other duties.
“I have 130 units,” he said. “I try my best.”
As part of their inspections, health officials can order an operator to be retrained but there is no standardized course. A retraining order simply means that before an inspector returns, the operator must show he can perform a procedure he was not able to do before.
In 2009 and 2010, inspectors reported more than 100 infractions for spa operators being improperly trained.
In Toronto, the data shows public pools run by the city have a better track record than private facilities.
Staff monitor chemical balance every two hours, says Anne Jackson, aquatics manager for the City of Toronto.
Resilient parasites such as cryptosporidium, which causes diarrhea, can survive more than a week in water with the lowest required amount of chlorine. But many waterborne pathogens, such as E. Coli or legionella, will quickly die in properly chlorinated water.
Still, one quarter of outbreaks in the United States involves bacteria and germs that are readily killed by chemicals, said pool-safety expert Lachoki.
“(Pool operators) need to know if they’re not monitoring chlorine levels, a bunch of people could get really sick,” he said.
Water safety experts say there’s not enough public awareness. Swallowing even a small amount of pool water contaminated with cryptosporidum can make a person sick. But it can take days, sometimes weeks before symptoms manifest.
“We tend to think, ‘Oh, it’s what I ate last night,’” Hlavsa said, “not where I swam a week ago.”
While Toronto public health officials monitor outbreaks, confirming illnesses can be “very difficult,” Thompson said.
Public health experts agree that the waterborne illnesses being reported in Canada are just the tip of the iceberg.
Swimmers need to know what they can do to avoid bringing germs and bacteria into pools, such as showering. They also need to know which pools aren’t living up to health inspectors’ standards.
“Information for the public is always helpful in them making the right choices in where to swim,” said Michael Shane, safety management director of the Lifesaving Society.
Back at Dia condo, the building’s property manager stood in front of the troubled hot tub that had notched 75 infractions in two years.
“Everything has been rectified,” Chan said. “The problems, they are in the past.”
But that’s not exactly true. In February, inspectors closed the tub because of a problem with its vacuum release system, a safety measure that prevents the pool’s suction mechanism from trapping bathers to the whirlpool floor.
It was reopened two days later. On its most recent inspection, April 26, health officials found 11 infractions — some of them the same violations the condo has repeatedly made since 2009.
But when asked for the latest inspection results, Chan said he didn’t have them.
“As far as I know, the health inspector says there is no problem,” he said.
For now, swimmers will have to take his word for it.
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Source: Toronto Star
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