Hygiena 2024, 69(1):11-17 | DOI: 10.21101/hygiena.a1854

Health risks of interactive urban water features and their prevention

Dana Baudišová, František Kožíšek, Lenka Mayerová, Petr Pumann, Hana Jeligová

Státní zdravotní ústav, Praha, Česká republika

Fountains and other urban water features are not designed for bathing, but many of them encourage direct contact with the water. Individual objects, however, are designed with varying degrees of erudition in water hygiene and therefore also with different modification of treatment technologies, water recirculation and operating instructions. Methodological Guidelines for the Safe Operation of Interactive Urban Water Features, Water Playgrounds and Water Parks was issued last year. It is not mandatory, but it was created as guidance to increase safety and possibly reduce health risks related to their use. The Guidelines were created primarily on the basis of our results, the assessment is summarized here. The key hygiene risks when people come into contact with water in fountains and other water features are mainly related to microbial pollution (intestinal pathogens with fecal-oral transmission or microbes with potential risks associated with contact with the skin and mainly with mucous membranes). Among the non-infectious risks, the attention should be drawn to slippery biofilms in fountains with water jets (danger of slipping and subsequent injury) and to the possibility of the occurrence of disinfection by-products - trichloramine, which irritates the mucous membranes and respiratory tract, or trihalogenmethane, suspected of having a carcinogenic effect, in excessively chlorinated water elements.

Keywords: water features, water hygiene, health risks, methodological guidelines

Received: March 2024; Accepted: March 2024; Published: March 2024  Show citation