Pool chlorine tied to lung damage in elite swimmers

Competitive swimmers who train at indoor chlorinated swimming pools may have lung changes similar to those seen in people with mild asthma, according to an international study. Researchers from France and Canada compared lung tissue and breathing test from 23 elite Canadian swimmers whose average age was 21, to 10 mild asthmatics and 10 healthy people without allergies of same age. Swimmers were more comparable to the mild asthmatics and had similar evidence of scar tissue in the lungs, but there is currently no evidence to suggest that these changes will lead to asthma down the line. Read more here on Reuters

(Totally unrelated shot of a baboon at a pool, courtesy of Jo Fleet, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)