If you’ve ever been to Las Vegas, you know how popular pool parties are there, but an expert has advised against going anywhere near the water.
For many tourists, a trip to Vegas will include some time spent trying your luck in the casinos, most likely visiting one of the renowned superclubs, and relaxing by the pool to top up your tan during the day.
Even while it may sound like a dream to enjoy a frozen cocktail while cooling off in the water, the dangers that lurk in the pool may discourage you from going for a swim.
Dan Kaszeta, a biological warfare specialist, has revealed what hidden nasties may be lurking in the pool water in Vegas.
Kaszeta, who was once a chemical Officer in the US Army and has worked with the Pentagon in the past, previously tweeted: “As a specialist in chemical and biological warfare, take this warning from me. Never get in a pool in Las Vegas. Don’t even touch the water.”
He ominously added in a follow-up tweet: “I know certain things so that you don’t have to.”
He explained that while serving as “the chemical and biological terrorism guy at the White House Military Office” in 1998 or 1999, he received a call from “another Federal agency” after many followers, understandably, wanted to know more about precisely why they shouldn’t enter the alluring water.
He said the man told him: “Dan, ya gotta help me. I’m working this case in Vegas. It’s probably nothing but it could be a bio thing. But I need access to a lab that can keep this on the downlow until we know what the deal is.”
In order to determine what was in the mystery sample, Kaszeta put the man in touch with experts who could analyse numerous samples of the clear liquids, including control materials like tap water and some water from a swimming pool from a “major hotel.”
He explained: “Two days later, I get a phone call in the middle of the night at home. From the White House switchboard. The lab is VERY eager to talk to me. Now, the lab, wisely and in accordance with good processes, did not know which sample was which. It turns out the “suspicious” liquid that had kicked off the investigation was something relatively harmless like glycerine.
“The sample that had one of the finest labs in the country alarmed so much was, erm, the control sample from the pool water. It was, to use a technical phrase ‘a shop of horrors’.”
He explained:Â “So, I asked the good scientists what was in this sample. They said it was easier to say what WASN’T in the sample. Alarming levels of Giardia and Cryptosporidium, both highly resistant to chlorine. A huge number of metabolites from human urine. Fecal matter, human, mammal, and avian. Trace amounts of cocaine, ketamine, and several different opiates. Adenoviruses. A weak immunochromatographic hit for Tularemia (not conclusive). Campylobacter. A soup of other things that I didn’t even know existed.”
He revealed that more samples from other pools in Las Vegas showed the same kind of thing, including bugs that were resistant to chlorine.
Kaszeta did not specify whether these things could be found in swimming pools in general rather than just in Vegas, but regardless, most people who travel to Sin City and take a dip manage to do so without getting sick, as long as they avoid ingesting the pool water itself.
