More families report sickness, rashes from Middleton water park

By Ethan Forman
Staff writer

March 05, 2008 07:18 am

—

MIDDLETON — Three more people are saying their families suffered rashes or were sickened by chemicals in a hot tub at the CoCo Key Water Resort, one 6-year-old boy "coughing, coughing and coughing to the point he was vomiting," according to his mother.

The resort says it has taken steps to address the problem, including doubling its testing schedule to every hour and warning guests about the hazards of overexposure to chlorinated spas.

The problem cropped up when Kristen Baker of Litchfield, N.H., complained Saturday that her children returned from a Girl Scout trip to the resort last week with chemical burns from the spa.

Yesterday, Steve Klingler of Concord, N.H., said he and his family suffered asthma attacks and he wound up with a burn on his face after splashing about in the spa this past Friday.

Klingler joins a mom from Salem and a mom from Beverly who complained this week about being irritated from chemicals used to disinfect the spa and pools.

All said they were in the spa at various times in February at the new $20 million water attraction in Middleton adjacent to the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort in Danvers.

Resort officials have been invited to meet with the Middleton Board of Health tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the Fuller Meadow School cafeteria to review their procedures. The state Department of Public Health plans to inspect the pools today, said Donna Rheaume, the department's spokeswoman.

Public pools are inspected by and licensed by local boards of health according to the state sanitary code, Rheaume said.

Klingler, a paramedic who works for an ambulance company in Haverhill, was troubled by the resort's statement Saturday that "children that spend an extended period of time in a spa are more likely to have this type of reaction."

"I'm 38 years old," Klingler said, "and I have a huge burn across my face, and you can't say it just affected kids."

His wife, Sherry, said in an e-mail that the kids were only in the hot tub for 10 to 12 minutes when they suffered asthma attacks. She believes the problem exists throughout the park, not just in the spa.

"I have a headache," she wrote, adding she's been "sick to my stomach since Thursday, and my children still have bumpy, dry skin."

The trouble with CoCo Key does not appear to be isolated to this past weekend.

On Feb. 11, the Middleton Health Department assisted the Fire Department with complaints of skin irritation. The town later determined chlorine levels were too high in the Dip-In Theater children's pool and Coral Reef Cavern activity pool, said Derek Fullerton, Middleton's health director.

The resort was cited for having gaps of two to three days in the logbooks where it records water-test data and having "free chlorine" levels at 5 parts per million, above the state standard of 1 to 3 parts per million, Fullerton said.

In response, the Board of Health ordered the pools closed temporarily.

The state requires tests be taken four times a day, while the internal policy of the resort was to test every two hours, Fullerton said. The resort said yesterday its engineering staff now tests every hour.

"Those tests have been logged appropriately," Kristin Perry, the general manager of the Sheraton Ferncroft, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

"When our chlorine level exceeds the levels recommended by local authorities we immediately close that section of the water park down until the chlorine level returns to where it should be," said a separate written statement yesterday from the resort. "When the Middleton Health Department determined our level was too high in mid-February, this is exactly what we did — we shut that section of the water park down until the appropriate chlorine levels returned."

The resort said it wants to make sure its guests are safe but warned about overexposure to its spa.

"We want to remind our guests — especially parents of younger children — that people of all ages should not spend extended time in heated and chlorinated spas. Young children should not utilize spas at any time," the resort's statement said.

Those with respiratory problems should avoid chlorinated spas, and everyone who uses them should shower before and after use. The resort is now passing out fliers outlining spa rules to guests. The resort said it drained the spa and rebalanced chlorine levels, which it said were within "recommended levels."

Chemical smell

A Salem mom said her family had trouble at the spa earlier this month when bubbles kicked up fumes, causing her 51/2-year-old daughter to gag.

"We had to get up, and she was tearing up," said Amy Pallazola, who visited the resort with her husband and daughter on Feb. 4 or 5. "My eyes were tearing, and my husband's eyes were tearing. We were all coughing, and so was everyone in the hot tub."

She said her daughter was not even in the spa, but near it.

Pallazola complained to the resort's staff that day, she said.

"We had such a great time," she said. "It was a great place, but there was something wrong with the spa."

Nancy Joslin of Beverly said she went there Feb. 16 with her husband and 6-year-old son. The child was in the hot tub and began coughing until he vomited, Joslin said.

Joslin said she saw other children getting sick. The smell of "chlorine was so strong all of our nostrils burned. If you cleaned with bleach in an enclosed area, you could get a chemical burn in your nostrils, and that was what it was like that day."

Klingler, his 4-year-old daughter, his 5-year-old son, 12-year-old stepdaughter, her 12-year-old friend and a 16-year-old nephew spent some time Wednesday and Thursday in the water park but spent their longest stretch there Friday for five hours, when something went wrong.

The off-duty paramedic became concerned when he saw people coughing in the spa around 4 p.m. They complained to the lifeguard, and the staff closed the attraction for about 15 to 20 minutes for a chemical check before opening it again, he said.

The resort said it takes 15 minutes to flush the system and introduce fresh water.

Klingler said after getting out of the water park, he noticed a redness on his nose, and that rash later progressed to a burning on his face by 1 a.m. Saturday, which he soothed with burn cream.

Klingler said his nephew had a burning sensation on his face, and his wife was at times vomiting and coughing, had a moderate asthma attack, and had to use her inhaler.

His family and friends left Saturday morning, sooner than they expected, and the hotel gave them $100 off the room, he said. The water resort gave them eight free passes and a letter of apology, but they did not meet with the manager, Klingler said.

Staff writer Bruno Matarazzo Jr. contributed to this report.

What's in the water?

Chlorine is a gas with an irritating odor used to disinfect water, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

r Hypochlorous acid and sodium hypochlorite are two chemicals used to disinfect water.

r Exposure can result in nose, throat or eye irritation. Breathing high levels of chlorine gas can increase your breathing rate and cause coughing or damage to lungs. It can cause a type of asthma called airways dysfunction syndrome.

r Hypochlorite solution on the skin can cause an irritation.

r Chlorine gas can be released to the air when chemicals used to chlorinate pools are mishandled.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.