The Commercial Aquatic Sanitation Standard for your Pool
The first publication of the Model Aquatic Health Code (MAHC) has been completed, a six-year process undertaken by the Centers for Disease Control and many industry experts to develop the uniform national standard for water quality and Recreational Water Illness (RWI) response. The CDC states that it is “intended to transform the typical health department program into a data-driven, knowledge-based, risk reduction effort to prevent disease and injuries and promote healthy recreational water experiences.”
Why should you be concerned about the MAHC?
The MAHC was conceived as a means to address growing problems with RWIs because traditional chlorine-based disinfection routes have not been sufficient enough to keep these outbreaks in check. With the public’s over-reliance on chlorine, the industry has seen an increase in chloramines and other chlorine byproducts such as swimmer’s asthma. One of the goals of the MAHC is to validate secondary disinfection options, such as ozone and UV light, which are safe and effective against chlorine-resistant pathogens.
Read the entire MAHC document here.
