With many of us opting to stay in the UK for our summer holidays this year, you might be scoping out a nice place in the country complete with a hot tub.
But one holiday expert has warned against using hot tubs in rentals and public places, suggesting it could end in all sorts of problems - including catching a potentially fatal disease.
Susan Griffin, who writes for 2Chill, explains that hopping into a hot tub that other people have used creates a 'human soup', making them a prime location to spot 'gag-reflex inducing sights' such as strands of a stranger's hair and dirty old plasters.
But of course, the real harm is caused by the things you can't see.
Advert
She goes on to list numerous branches of bacteria that can thrive in these warm, moist conditions. As she points out, hot tubs can be breeding ground for bacteria including E.coli, the herpes virus, and even Legionnaires disease, which can be fatal.
Lovely.
Meanwhile, WebMD warns that in the US between 2000 and 2014, a whopping 27,000 infections and eight deaths were linked to outbreaks from treated pools and hot tubs.
The site goes on: "Pseudomonas, one type of bacteria that thrives in hot tubs, causes infections of the hair follicles and skin.
Advert
"Symptoms include red, itchy bumps on the belly and areas covered by your bathing suit. These bumps can pop up anywhere from a few hours to a few days after you take a dip.
"Other germs that live in hot tubs can also make you sick. Cryptosporidium causes GI infections with diarrhoea. Legionella causes a severe type of pneumonia, or lung disease."
According to the NHS, Legionnaires' disease is caused by breathing in tiny droplets of contaminated water.
Advert
If you do still fancy giving a hot tub a go, it's recommended that you shower before and after use.
Paul Abbott is a senior water treatment consultant at Hydrochem UK, told gazettelive: "Hot tub users should be showering before they get in the water and again once they get out to ensure that bacteria isn't left sitting on your skin which can help to colonise the spa.
"Another reason why you should definitely shower before entering the tub is that the average bather has around a gram of faeces in their gluteal fold which then obviously ends up in the water.
"Imagine you have five or six people in the hot tub at once, not a nice thought at all. When urine and other waste, such as sweat, mixes with chlorine, it creates an irritant called chloramine, which is what causes red, stinging eyes when swimming.
Advert
"So it's really important to not use the hot tub as a toilet."
Good advice.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Interesting