Introduction: Human exposure to chloroform in indoor swimming pools has been recognized as a potential health concern by the International agency for research on cancer because it is classified into group 2B as possibly carcinogenic for humans. There are three main routes of exposure to chloroform in the indoor swimming pools: (1) ingestion of swimming pool water, (2) inhalation of the indoor pool air, and (3) dermal contact and absorption through the skin. Purpose: The purpose of the master's thesis is to prepare a health risk assessment for long-term exposure to chloroform in freshwater indoor swimming pools which use chlorine as a disinfectant from which the chloroform is formed. Methods: We carried out a risk assessment for chloroform in the case of a freshwater indoor swimming pool where chlorine is used as a disinfectant. Based on the available data, we evaluated all 4 stages of the risk assessment: (1) hazard identification, (2) hazard characterization, (3) dose-response assessment, (4) exposure assessment and risk characterization under the different exposure scenarios according to the internationally established methodology, which was modified in certain contents in a meaningful way. Results: We found that the risk in all scenarios for inhalation exposure to chloroform is significantly higher than the risk due to water ingestion or absorption through the skin. In all scenarios for inhalation exposure, the calculated risks were greater than the acceptable risk, as suggested by the World health organization (1/100,000), the calculated risk was highest for competitive swimmers. When calculating the exposure scenario for competitive swimmers, when real-time measurements of chloroform concentrations in swimming pool water and in the air of the indoor swimming pool just above the water surface was used, we found that the risk was more than 1000x greater than the acceptable risk. Discussion and conclusion: The results of calculated risks due to exposure to chloroform under different exposure scenarios of indoor swimming pool users show that the inhalation risks in Slovenian conventional freshwater indoor swimming pools is particularly problematic. In the future, it will be necessary to better examine and control the chemical risks in the indoor swimming pools, with the focus on methods aimed to reduce the risks of exposure to chloroform, trihalomethanes or other chlorination by-products. This does not mean that control of microbiological and other health risks in the indoor swimming pools should be ignored. We suggest that the problem of chloroform is not solved solely by controlling the concentration of total trihalomethanes in swimming pool water, but in the future also the controlling of the trihlomethanes concentration in the indoor swimming pool air should be carried out by certified companies.
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