--- title: What's Lurking in Pool Water description: Heading to the pool? It turns out that people aren’t the only ones who find that cool water inviting when the temperatures soar. canonical: https://time.com/2800002/whats-lurking-in-the-pool-water/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-30T19:00:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:08:19.997Z article:section: Health og:title: Here's What's Lurking In the Pool Water og:description: Heading to the pool? It turns out that people aren’t the only ones who find that cool water inviting when the temperatures soar. og:url: https://time.com/2800002/whats-lurking-in-the-pool-water/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What's Lurking In the Pool Water twitter:description: Heading to the pool? It turns out that people aren’t the only ones who find that cool water inviting when the temperatures soar. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here's What's Lurking In the Pool Water  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent May 30, 2014 7:00 PM UTC  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent May 30, 2014 7:00 PM UTC Microbes, including bacteria that live on our skin and in our noses, get dropped into the pool whenever we take a dip. Not all of them make us sick, and chlorine can kill germs, but sometimes it takes days for that to happen. And if your pool smells like chemicals, that’s not a sign that it’s clean. In fact, the stronger the odor, the harder the chlorine is working to eliminate things like urine, sweat, dirt, poop and other things that swimmers trail in. Here’s a handy (and slightly scary) rundown of the bugs and other things that every swimmer brings into the pool, from the Centers for Disease Control. Their advice? Take a dip and enjoy your swim. But shower before you jump in. And don’t drink the water.  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2800002/whats-lurking-in-the-pool-water/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2800002/whats-lurking-in-the-pool-water/"},"headline":"Here's What's Lurking In the Pool Water","datePublished":"2014-05-30T19:00:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:19.997Z","description":"Heading to the pool? It turns out that people aren’t the only ones who find that cool water inviting when the temperatures soar.","url":"https://time.com/2800002/whats-lurking-in-the-pool-water/","keywords":["Infectious Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2800002/whats-lurking-in-the-pool-water/","name":"Here's What's Lurking In the Pool Water"}}]}] ```