Abstract
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is present in both respiratory secretions and feces, creating its potential for transmission by swimming pools. Recreational water activity is known to be at increased risk of respiratory infections and respiratory viruses have caused been detected and have caused outbreaks in swimming pools. However, little is known regarding the chlorine inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 in water typical of swimming pools in the USA. In this study, the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 Isolate hCoV-19/USA-WA1/2020 was observed in water by chlorination. All experiments were conducted within a BSL-3 laboratory at room temperature. Our results show that the virus was reduced by 3.5 log (> 99.9%) after 30 s of 2.05-mg/L free chlorine contact and greater than 4.17 log (limit of detection) (> 99.99%) within 2 min.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bonadonna, L., & La Rosa, G. (2019). A review and update on waterborne viral diseases associated with swimming pols. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(2), 166. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16020166
Brown, J. C., Moshe, M., Blackwell, A., & Barclay, W. (2021). Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 in chlorinated swimming pool water. Water Research, 205, 117718.
Centers for Disease Control. Operating public swimming pools. https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/aquatics-professionals/operating-public-swimming-pools.html#:~:text=Maintain%20free%20chlorine%20levels%20continuously,the%20water%20at%207.2%E2%80%937.8
Chen, Y., Chen, L., Deng, Q., Zhang, G., Wu, K., Ni, L., Yang, Y., Liu, B., Wang, W., Wei, C., Yang, J., Ye, G., & Cheng, Z. (2020). The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in feces of COVID-19 patients. Journal of Medical Virology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.25825
Fears, A. C., Klimstra, W. B., Duprex, P., Hartman, A., Weaver, S. C., Plante, K. S., Mirchandani, D., Plante, J. A., Aguilar, P. V., Fernández, D., Nalca, A., Totura, A., Dyer, D., Kearney, B., Lackemeyer, M., Bohannon, J. K., Johnson, R., Garry, R. F., Reed, D. S., & Roy, C. J. (2020). Persistence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in aerosol suspensions. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 26(9), 2168–2171. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2609.201806
Greaves, J., Fischer, R., Shaffer, M., Bivins, A., Holbrook, M., Munster, V., & Bibby, K. (2022). Sodium hypochlorite disinfection of SARS-CoV-2 spiked in water and municipal wastewater. Science of the Total Environment, 807(3), 150766.
Hierholzer, J. C., & Killington, R. A. (1996). Virus isolation and quantitation. In W. J. Brian & H. O. Kango (Eds.), Virology methods manual (pp. 25–46). Academic Press.
Hindson, J. (2020). COVID-19: Faecal–oral transmission? Nature Reviews. Gastroenterology & Hepatology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-020-0295-7
Holshue, M. L., DeBolt, C., Lindquist, S., Lofy, K. H., Wiesman, J., Bruce, H., Spitters, C., Ericson, K., Wilkerson, S., Tural, A., Diaz, G., Cohn, A., Fox, L. A., Patel, A., Gerber, S. I., Kim, L., Tong, S., Lu, X., Lindstrom, S.,..., Pillai, S. K. (2019). First case of 2019 novel coronavirus in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2001191
Lai, M. Y. Y., Cheng, P. K. C., & Lim, W. W. L. (2005). Survival of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Clinical Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1086/433186
Lamers, M. M., Beumer, J., van der Vaart, J., Knoops, K., Puschhof, J., Breugem, T. I., Ravelli, R. B. G., van Schayck, J. P., Mykytyn, A. Z., Duimel, H. Q., van Donselaar, E., Riesebosch, S., Kuijpers, H. J. H., Schipper, D., van de Wetering, W. J., de Graaf, M., Koopmans, M., Cuppen, E., Peters, P. J.,...Clevers, H. (2020). SARS-CoV-2 productively infects human gut enterocytes. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.25.060350
Mannocci, et al. (2016). Is swimming in recreational water associated with the occurrence of respiratory illness? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Water and Health, 14, 590–599.
Xiao, F., Tang, M., Zheng, X., Liu, Y., Li, X., & Shan, H. (2020). Evidence for gastrointestinal infection of SARS-CoV-2. Gastroenterology. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2020.02.055
Funding
This research was supported by the NIH Grant R21AI157434 to Samendra Sherchan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis and investigation, Writing and original draft preparation, and Writing, reviewing, and editing of the manuscript: SS; Formal analysis and investigation and Writing, reviewing, and editing of the manuscript: LI; Funding acquisition: SS and CG; Resources: CG; Supervision: SS and CG; Writing of the original draft preparation and Writing, reviewing, and editing of the manuscript: CG; Project administration: CG
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Sherchan, S., Ikner, L.A. & Gerba, C.P. Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 in Water by Chlorination. Food Environ Virol 15, 262–264 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-023-09559-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-023-09559-y