Colorado Springs, CO (September 14, 2005)

The National Swimming Pool Foundation® has awarded three new grants to continue its effort to reduce injury and disease in and around the water. Grants worth a total of $225,000 to be paid out over the next 18 months have been awarded to three organizations:  The Centers for Dis­ease Control (CDC), University of North Carolina-Charlotte (UNCC), and the National Association of Lo­cal Boards of Health (NALBOH).

The grant to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will extend CDC’s effort to reduce disease outbreaks due to chlorine-resistant pathogens for a third year. Over the last decade, documented recreational water illness (RWI) outbreaks have been increasing. The CDC has reported a record number of RWI outbreaks in the 2001/2002 biannual report (MMWR, Oct 22, 2004). This grant, for $109,410, will allow the CDC to better understand how to inacti­vate Cryptosporidium parvum (crypto) to reduce this leading cause of disease outbreaks in recreational water. "The CDC has made great strides. Yet the road remains dif­ficult, with thousands getting sick this summer in New York and Ohio due to crypto," says Thomas Lachocki, CEO of the NSPF.

The second grant, awarded for $78,540 to The University of North Carolina-Charlotte (UNCC), also focuses on crypto.  UNCC’s work will concentrate on filtration research to remove crypto from pool water and reduce the risk of dis­ease transmission. "The war is not won, but we are targeting the problem in several ways to help the aquat­ics field prevail,” adds Cory Willis, chairman of the NSPF Grant Re­view Committee.

Boards of health often dic­tate health department budgets and focus. Yet, preliminary data suggests that board members are not familiar with recreational water issues or the benefits of aquatic activities. The third grant, in amount of $37,385, to the National Asso­ciation of Local Boards of Health (NALBOH), will study the current knowledge level of board of health members regarding aquatics risks and benefits. Based on the research findings, an educational guide will be developed to increase members’ awareness of aquatic risks and rewards. "This grant will help board members to grasp the issues - they can then assist direct health departments in creating solutions,” says CEO Lachocki.

As our country’s population ages and becomes more sedentary, the need for healthy recreational water facilities increases. But despite this growing need and the increase in RWI outbreaks, most states do not mandate or require training of people who care for public pools and spas. Budget cuts have reduced some health departments’ effort to inspect and train their staff with nationally-accepted programs that focus on preventing RWI or other injuries. 

“The NSPF is committed to building awareness and breaking down unhealthy practices,” says Bill Kent, president of NSPF. “We need to educate more and have fewer painful lessons. We need to research more and have less illness,” agrees Lachocki. “If we succeed, fewer will become ill and more will be attracted to pools and spas,” he concludes.