Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. As the summer of was
Speaker 1: coming to a close, a buzz was sounding among those
Speaker 1: in the swimming pool industry. Chlorine was becoming scarce and
Speaker 1: it wasn't going to get better anytime soon. Industry experts
Speaker 1: knew what a chlorine shortage would mean. Pool owners would
Speaker 1: be left scrambling for this pool sanitizer and spending much
Speaker 1: more per bucket, possibly hoarding the tablets or looking for
Speaker 1: alternatives to keep their pools clean and safe. But at
Speaker 1: the time, the public remained largely unaware, more focused on
Speaker 1: the global COVID nineteen pandemic and the heated presidential election.
Speaker 1: A cooler weather was also coming, and pools across the
Speaker 1: country were beginning to close. The fallout from the Great
Speaker 1: chlorine Shortage of wouldn't be realized until the warmer weather
Speaker 1: returned the following year. Fast forward to just as quickly
Speaker 1: as spring flowers began to blossom and pools began to open,
Speaker 1: so did word of the chlorine shortage, leaving pool owners
Speaker 1: and a lerch for the article this episode is based on,
Speaker 1: has to Fork spoke with Rudy Stankowitz, a pool water
Speaker 1: chemistry expert and CEO of Aquatic Facility Training and Consultants.
Speaker 1: He calls the circumstances leading up to the shortage a
Speaker 1: perfect storm, and he sometimes calls it pool Mageddon. In
Speaker 1: early when news first broke that the coronavirus had landed
Speaker 1: on US soil, Americans scrambled to buy up hand sanitizers
Speaker 1: to protect ourselves from the virus. Justice demand for the
Speaker 1: products began to soar. The Food and Drug Administration or
Speaker 1: f d A issued warnings to consumers that some hand
Speaker 1: sanitizers contained methanol, a substance that can be toxic when
Speaker 1: absorbed through the skin or ingested. Apprompted by the additional
Speaker 1: strain on hand sanitizer products, the Centers for Disease Control
Speaker 1: and Prevention or CDC issued recommendations on hand hygiene. In
Speaker 1: cases where soap and water or alcohol based hand rubs
Speaker 1: are not available, The CDC recommended some d i y
Speaker 1: hand washing solutions that included chlorinated water made with chlorine powder.
Speaker 1: Another strain on chlorine demand came from the boom in
Speaker 1: residential pools, with amusement, park and event venue closures and
Speaker 1: travel restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID. People were
Speaker 1: stuck at home and forced to find their own forms
Speaker 1: of entertainment. Some of the money people would have spent
Speaker 1: on vacations got funneled into backyard swimming pools. Stankowitz said
Speaker 1: of pools were a popular go to item to install,
Speaker 1: and as a result, the industry grew fourteen percent last
Speaker 1: year during the pandemic. So we have more water in
Speaker 1: people's backyards than ever before, creating more and more demand.
Speaker 1: But the big his hit came on August when Hurricane Laura,
Speaker 1: of category four hurricane hit southwest Louisiana, triggering a fire
Speaker 1: in bio Labs chlorine and disinfectant manufacturing plant. Bio Lab
Speaker 1: is the largest chlorine producer in the United States, making
Speaker 1: at least seventy of the chlorine tablets used by pool
Speaker 1: owners in America. The chlorine plant, just west of Lake
Speaker 1: Charles burned for more than fifty hours. The fire completely
Speaker 1: shut down bio Labs production of chlorine tablets. In the
Speaker 1: weeks and months that followed, warehouse supplies began to dwindle
Speaker 1: and chlorine tablets became scarce. As a result, the price
Speaker 1: of chlorine began to skyrocket. According to i h S
Speaker 1: Market data cited by Goldman Sachs, chlorine prices are thirty
Speaker 1: seven percent higher now than they were last spring. For reference,
Speaker 1: a twenty five pound or eleven kilo bag of chlorine
Speaker 1: tablets costs about a hundred and thirty five dollars today
Speaker 1: compared to just eighty nine dollars in May of and
Speaker 1: stank Witz doesn't expect the chlorine shortage to end this summer.
Speaker 1: File apps production of chlorine tablets is not expected to
Speaker 1: return to normal levels until April two. Meanwhile, demand for
Speaker 1: chlorine is expected to increase as the number of residential
Speaker 1: swimming pools continues to grow into According to Pool Corp,
Speaker 1: a pool supply company, about a hundred and ten thousand
Speaker 1: new pools are expected to be added in the US
Speaker 1: this year, an increase of more than over twenties already
Speaker 1: high numbers. What that means is pool owners can expect
Speaker 1: to pay about fifty eight percent more for chlorine in June, July,
Speaker 1: and auguste compared to last year, according to I h
Speaker 1: S Market So up, are there any alternatives to chlorine tablets?
Speaker 1: Chlorine is a necessary chemical to keep swimming pools safe
Speaker 1: and clean. When added to swimming pool water, it forms
Speaker 1: hypo chlorous acid, a mild disinfectant that prevents the growth
Speaker 1: of algae. Chlorine kills bacteria like Salmonella and equal I
Speaker 1: and can enactivate viruses that cause illnesses like diarrhea and
Speaker 1: swimmer's ear. Even saltwater pools use special generators that turn
Speaker 1: the salt you add to the water into chlorine to
Speaker 1: keep the pool water safe. But what can pool owners
Speaker 1: do if they can't get their hands on chlorine tablets first?
Speaker 1: Other types of chlorine or colorine compounds in liquid or
Speaker 1: powder forms can also be used. These should be more
Speaker 1: readily available in stores as well. Stanko's explained that there
Speaker 1: are also hacks that pool owners can use that enable
Speaker 1: them to use less chlorine or use other products like bleach.
Speaker 1: He wrote an entire book dedicated to the topic how
Speaker 1: to Get rid of swimming pool algae. Doing your homework
Speaker 1: before altering the chemicals in your pool is strongly recommended, though,
Speaker 1: according to the CDC, pool chemical injuries send a up
Speaker 1: four thousand five people to US emergency departments every year.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article National Chlorine Shortage
Speaker 1: could Spoil the US Summer on Houstuffworks dot Com, written
Speaker 1: by Jennifer Walker. Journey Brainstuffers production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with houstuffworks dot Com and is produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Playing for four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit
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