Shorten your swim, says lido, as hypothermia cases rise

DESPITE a growing band of proponents promoting its benefits to mental and physical health, cold water swimming could be putting thousands of people at risk as they swim for longer than their bodies can take.

This week the Parliament Hill Lido in Hampstead, north London, issued a warning to inexperienced cold water swimmers, with at least one a day struck down by hypothermia since winter started in earnest.

The lido, whose frequent visitors include Alastair Campbell and Jo Johnson, the former Conservative minister, is open for 365 days a year for unheated outdoor swimming.

For the first time, it issued a warning to swimmers in a post on a Facebook group page this week. It said: “The lifeguard team have asked you all to be careful and to shorten your swim from now on. The water temperature has dropped five degrees in a matter of days and some people are still insisting on staying in the water as long as they were last week.

“We have had at least one hypothermic incident EVERY DAY for the last week. Please, please, be careful and don’t stay in the water too long.”

One of the pool workers said: “Over recent years it has become more and more fashionable to swim in cold water and that has meant we have had more and more people doing it. But not everyone is experienced and undertaking proper acclimatisation.

“And not everyone knows the signs – as soon as you start feeling a tingle you really should get out. We generally say for guidance that the number of the temperature equates to the amount of time it’s safe to spend in the water – so one minute at one degree, two at two, and so on. This week the temperature

‘Not everyone knows the signs – as soon as you start feeling a tingle you really should get out’

has been down to eight degrees but we’ve had people continuing to try to use it to exercise.

“We are all now on alert for people showing signs of hypothermia and we have a protocol to get them dry and warm immediately for their safety.”

A spokesman for the Hampstead Heath charity, which runs the lido for the City of London Corporation, said: “We are urging swimmers to follow our cold water swimming guidelines, especially during the recent drop in temperatures.”