Bathing
Bathing is the immersion of the body in fluid, usually water, or an aqueous solution, such as the asses' milk favored by Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Some spa facilities provide bathing in various other liquids such as chocolate or mud. Additionally, exposing the body to open air is sometimes considered bathing, for example, in sunbathing.
Reasons for bathing
Bathing has four main purposes:
- Hygiene as well as decontamination in response to a chemical spill or bioterror attack;
- recreation;
- therapy (e.g. hydrotherapy), healing, and relaxation;
- religous rites.
Bathing is done in a bath.
Bath (Aquae Sulis) is also the name of a Roman city in England famous for its healing hydrothermal springs, and most recently for the swimming pools);
A private bath is usually a tub for one person, often found in the privacy of one's own home. A public bath, such as a municipal swimming bath, may be used for recreational bathing. Some municipal swimming baths also have steam baths located near the main swimming bath. Additionally the rules for use typically state that "each bather shall take a thorough soap shower...".
A shower bath is a system that pours water down onto a bather from above, rather than having the bather lower himself, or herself into the water.
A steam bath is a hot room where bathers sit and where hot steam at a temperature of approximately 120 deg. F is pumped into the room.
A sauna bath is a bath of dry heat, and thus not really a bath according to the definition of bathing, other than the fact that sometimes water is thrown on the rocks that form the thermal ballast of the sauna heater. This results in a steam bath effect.
A swimming bath is a bath in which persons propel themselves by moving their bodies. Bathing is a superset of swimming, in the sense that to swim, we must bathe (i.e. immerse the body in the sense that one cannot swim without getting wet). However, those who do not know how to swim, or are not interested in swimming will often soak or relax, or do water exercises that do not involve propulsion in the water.
Some municipal swimming bath complexes have multiple varied baths, including lane swim, "fun swim", steam, sauna, whirlpool, and a teaching pool for learning how to swim. A teach pool, or therepeutic pool will often be warmer than the other pools. Baths have various sizes and depths depending on usage. An olympic swimming bath will usually be 50m by 25m divided into 10 lanes of 2.5m width each, with the outside two not used, so that each bather experiences the same boundary conditions. A deeper pool is usually faster (less reflected waves from the bottom). Additionally, many bathing complexes have a very deep pool that can be entered from various heights, such as 1m, 3m, 5m, and 10m. Entering the water from higher up provides a thrill, or "fun swim" which is a favorite of children. More recently the 10m height of some municipal swimming baths (such as Woodbine Bathing Station/Summerville Olympic Pool) have been closed to children for safety reasons. Many of the "fun swims" also include inner tubes that bathers can float on. Some large baths include a number of waterslides or other fun experiences. Temperature extremes also provide an additional thrill factor. For example, Schwabel Quellen (a member of the European Waterparks Association, EWA), provides a room full of snow, so that bathers can roll in the snow, after a hot sauna, year round.
Bathwear
Bathing usually involves the removal of at least some clothing. The amount of clothing removed depends on circumstance, custom, and willingness of bathers to reveal themselves. A bathingsuit is a garment designed for bathing. A swimming suit or swimsuit is a garment that is more streamlined than a bathingsuit, and is used for swimming. Typically a men's bathsuit consists of shorts, whereas a men's swimsuit consists of briefs. A women's suit often consists of two pieces that cover the top and bottom portions of the body, or of a one piece that resembles the combination of briefs and a tank top joined together.
Some baths such as Schwabel Quellen, and many other European Waterparks, require bathers to be completely naked, or make people who are not completely naked feel uncomfortable. Some baths are separated by gender, whereas others, such as Schwaben Quellen are mixed gender. The trend in German bathing is toward mixed gender, combined with complete nudity. Only the older German baths, such as Bad Burg, remain segregated by gender. The reverse is true of Japanese baths. Most of the newer japanese baths are gender segregated, whereas the older Japanese baths in the countryside are mixed gender. In both cases (mixed or segregated) public bathing in Japan is done in total nudity.
Hazards of bathing
Bathing can result in better hygeine, exercise, and health, but there are also dangers. Drowning is one possible danger. Drowning happens less often, but has still been known to occur in a shower bath. Baths that have standing water involve a higher risk of drowning. Heatstroke can also result from the use of sauna baths or other hot baths. Ear infections, known as swimmers ear can also occur. Impact injuries are also possible from landing inappropriatly in a bath, from an elevation, or from collision with other bathers, or with the sides of the bath. Bathers sometimes wear two swimsuits, one inside the other, when entering from a height of 5m or more. At 10m, single swimsuits will somtimes tear on impact with the water. Water impact to the head is prevented by extending the arms, and holding the hands together. It is important to not interlock the fingers otherwise damage may occur. Any part of the body not streamlined may be hurt. Loose swimsuits can result in impact to the genitalia, which is often felt as referred pain in the abdomen. If jumping in feet first, the feet should be intertwined to avoid this. If the legs are not kept straight, bruises may result from impact with the water. Damage to stomach or back is possible if entry is parallel with water.
Sharing dirty bathwater can result in infection or the spread of disease. Some bathing solutions can irritate certain individuals. Certain people are more senstive to chlorine, or bath salts.
Decontamination baths may also cause more hazard than good. For example, there have been a number of spills of icing sugar or table salt that were reported as "mysterious white powder". The results were forced bathing of large numbers of people. The resulting struggles can cause injury. Additionally, hosing large numbers of people down in a parking lot, with bleach, can cause bad skin reactions, or hypothermia in cold weather as hundreds of naked people are waiting for clean clothes to arrive.
