Training in chlorine hard on lungs??

[Wess]

I've been reading some stuff (like this: Are Indoor Pools Bad for Your Lungs? - NYTimes.com)
And it sounds like chlorine is bad for your lungs.. which sounds like it'd be terrible for free dive training.. any thoughts? I wish there were more salt water pools around.

 

[growingupninja]

I recently read a different study where they tested lungs of a lot of ex-swimmers who had trained in indoor pools. Many of those swimmers had--I think--upper resperitory scarring that meant they had suffered lung damage, although they were asymptomatic and had better than normal lung function. I swam competively for over a decade starting at 6 years, mostly in indoor chlorinated pools. One in particular was REALLY bad. Coach had to go to hospital once after doing something in the pump room, and it frequently had a visible fog of condensation in the rafters. On a really bad day it would rain in the pool from the stuff that condensed and dripped from the ceiling. Standing puddles on the pool deck had a brown edge like you see in photos of sulfurous natural springs. The starting blocks were in the shallow end so we did racing starts into 3.5' of water. The building had windows but they were small, dirty, difficult to open and provided no light or ventilation that I remember. Ah, simpler times. They sure don't build them like they used to.

I had a persistant chronic cough every single winter until I was in my 20's. Probably related. Didn't affect performance though. Since I quit racing I have swum in an indoor pool maybe a dozen times in more years than that. But I live in California now and most outdoor pools can be trained in year round.

 

[Apneaddict]

I get sinus inflammation from lots of time in heavy chlorine.

I put a filter on my shower head - now when in another shower the smell is noxious.

As a bonus, I use the filtered water in the AM for my neti pot.