New research published in the European Respiratory Journal suggests children who begin to swim in chlorinated pools before age 2 may be at increased risk for bronchiolitis, a lung infection, as well as asthma and allergies later in life. Children who used indoor pools for more than 20 hours before age 2 had a risk of bronchiolitis that was 31/2 times greater than those who had never visited such a facility. Those who spent a comparable amount of time at outdoor pools exhibited a twofold risk increase. The study, which examined 430 Belgian kindergarteners, was conducted by Dr. Alfred Bernard of Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels. He has conducted similar research showing detrimental effects of chlorine and disinfection byproducts (DBP) and their relation to respiratory ailments.