Swimming Pool Rash Discovery

[Yethu]

My swimming pool rash was caused by a product used to shock pools: Oxy-Brite (DuPont Oxone; potassium peroxymonosulphate.)

My rash was initially diagnosed as (and looked like) scabies (mites), bug bites, bed bug bites, dry skin.... (Treatments seemed to work, but....)

Red blotches, starting small and spreading. Intense itching. At times covering arms, legs, trunk (not neck, head, hands, feet.)

I had no reaction during the first year I used the pools. Then I would break out within 4 hours to 4 days after swimming there. No pattern related to when the chemical was added. Tests of the water did not show the chemical  when I swam.

The chemical is expensive, so it's more likely to be used in major pools. (I got the rash only in pools at Ohio State.)

The chemical is not used in many other products, so I'm not likely to have a similar reaction elsewhere.

There are now 3 cases published; my contact dermatitis specialist expects to publish mine and two others in a year.

My allergic reaction may be rare, because I was assured that I was the only one at the pools with a rash.

Or it may be common, but hard to identify the link. (It took me over a year, 4 doctors, including an allergist and 2 dermatologists. Eventually my wife noticed that the rash disappeared when I travelled, even when I swam when away. The aquatics director from the beginning told me he suspected an allergy to this chemical. And another administrator now tells me that he had been dealing with problems apparently related to this chemical for 15 years, with a swim team member having to leave another school to continue swimming.)

OSU solved my problem just after I made the link. They stopped using the chemical temporarily (because the Health Department required all city pools to shock with chlorine because of a cryptosporidium outbreak.) They then drained a pool (for scheduled maintenance), eliminating the monopersulphate. They resumed with chlorine and promised to keep that pool free of the chemical. (They also will install in that pool an ultraviolet light purification system, which eliminates the need for chemical shocking.)

I'm fine now.

Questions:

What else can we can do to spread the word so that swimmers, primary physicians and dermatologists add this to their list of suspects for rashes?

And get Dupont to require pools using Oxone to conspicuously disclose to swimmers that they are using this product and it has has caused rashes to swimmers. (Or stop selling it until it is safe.)