In this modern era, people recognise swimming as a beneficial recreational activity for health and skills and one of the popular sports among Malaysians. Moreover, swimming is an artificially enclosed body of water for recreation or other bathing activities involving physical movement (Perkins, 1988). Swimmers' background comes from adult and children; most public swimming pools provide baby swimming pools (baby pools) that usually differ from the adult swimming pools (adult pools) in terms of depth and size. Most people in the urban country choose the swimming pool rather than the beach or waterfall because of its safety and cleanness. However, the swimming pool water can be contaminated by a variety of pathogenic microorganisms, which may be obtained in several ways, for example, from excretion products from the swimmers, airborne contamination, or low sanitary status of the swimming pool itself (Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 2011). In deep, swimmers one of the leading causes of swimming pool water will be contamination, which may come from swimmer secretion such as saliva, blood, urine, stool, swimwear, skin tissue, sweat, and cosmetics produces (deodorant, make-up, sunscreen, etc.). This contaminated water leads to various waterborne diseases, including diarrhoea, skin rashes, ear infection, and upper respiratory infection, particularly when the swimmer's head is inundated or the swimmer accidentally swallows the contaminated water (WHO, 2004; Agbabiaka, 2010).
The swimming pool needs proper sanitation to maintain the hygienic regulation swimming pool by WHO and to ensure the safety condition of the swimming pool for the public. The goal of sanitation is usually to prevent the spread of diseases and pathogens between users. (Totkova et al., 1994). According to Agbabiaka (2010), water swimming pool safety, especially toward cleanness and sanitisation, should be one of the most important things taken count by the public since it impacts the swimmer's health. Some alternative pool systems to maintain sanitation include using salt water or a UV treatment system.
Recreational water illnesses (RWIs) or waterborne diseases are one of the illnesses caused by germs spread by swallowing, breathing in mists or aerosols, or having contact with contaminated water in swimming pools, hot tubs, water parks, water play areas, interactive fountains, lakes, rivers, or oceans (CDC, 2008). It is defined as any illness from the consumption of or water contaminated with producing agents, including bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, and their products, and toxic substances that are not of microbial origin. It is one of the essential factors toward public health community problems, which caused a significant impact on the economy and trade in the developing country, especially in Malaysia. (Sharifa Ezat et al., 2013) Chlorine level is one of the methods used to check the cleanness of swimming pool water. The chlorine concentration in pool water might reduce due to urine, stool, sweat, and any discharge from swimmers’ bodies, which may lead to less effectiveness to pathogenic bacteria. Furthermore, according to WHO (2006), droplets or mists come sunlight might free chlorine concentration. That is why the free chlorine concentration must be routinely tested. Chlorine levels need to be checked at least once a day to ensure it is at the standard range between 1.5 to 3 ppm (WHO, 2006) to avoid the formation or growth of pathogenic bacteria in the swimming pool. The chlorine levels bather load is usually much higher at 3 -5 ppm, but if the chlorine levels between 5-10 ppm are still safe to swim. As the side effects, swimmers may increase exposure and potentially provoke skin and eye irritation, lung irritation and asthma. This study's objective is to compare the microbiological water quality and chlorine level between the adult public swimming pool and the baby public swimming pool in Klang Valley.