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People visiting Great Wolf Lodge- !!!INDOOR WATER PARK!!!- in Mason,

Ohio, outside of Cincinnati, complain of rashes, respiratory

problems and flu-like symptoms.

<http://preview.tinyurl.com/2cpbfn>

MASON – Officials at Great Wolf Lodge are working with state and

county health officials to figure out why dozens of adults and

children have experienced rashes, coughing and other minor

respiratory or flu-like symptoms after visiting the new indoor water

park.

Great Wolf officials said today they are working to solve the

problem, and that health department tests of the pools' water showed

nothing unusual.

Officials with the Warren County Health Department and Ohio

Department of Health said they have received five or six complaints

from groups or families since the beginning of the year.

No one has been hospitalized, but one child was taken to an

emergency room and some have received medical treatment on the scene

from paramedics or from their family doctors after leaving, said Dan

, director of environmental health for the Warren County

Health Department.

On any given weekend since Great Wolf Lodge opened in mid-December,

2,000 to 3,000 people are in the pools, he said.

None of the staff has reported feeling ill, added.

" It's been odd that it's only a few families complaining but this

most recent complaint is the fourth incident, " said. " It is

not a large amount of people but there's certainly a pattern of the

problem. There is something going on. We are still at a loss, quite

frankly, exactly what the problem is. "

Added Kristopher Weiss, spokesman for the Ohio Department of

Health: " We don't get a lot of complaints so it's hard to quantify,

but it's not something we hear about often. "

Great Wolf officials told the Warren County Health Department they

asked the company that installed its ventilation system to inspect

it today, said.

" The safety and wellbeing of our guests are the utmost importance, "

Great Wolf officials said in a statement released.

" Great Wolf Lodge will continue to take all necessary steps to

ensure that our water park is in full compliance with the

regulations of the Warren County Department of Heath and the Ohio

Department of Agriculture. "

The trouble could be that large amounts of chlorine are used in the

park's pools and water slides, said.

" It's a heated building in an enclosed atmosphere and because of the

pools being basically amusement rides, there's a lot of water

splashing, " he said. " The water is coming out of the pool faster

than it would in a still pool, so you end up with all these chlorine

compounds in the air. "

County records show Dave Farrar of Mason filed a complaint with the

Warren County Health Department after spending the weekend of Feb.

16-17 at the water park with a group of 11 relatives, including his

wife and two children, Devin, 8, and Brenna, 11.

They wound up getting sick and left early, he said. They don't plan

to return.

His children had rashes from " shoulder to toe, " he came down with

stomach cramps and diarrhea and his wife developed stomach cramps

and the flu, he said.

" The Great Wolf Lodge left us howling mad, " Dave Farrar

said. " Everybody got sick. A lot of people we talked to that were

staying there said their kids had rashes in the water and at night,

their lungs were just filled with mucus and coughing. We had

lifeguards telling us not to spend more than an hour in the enclosed

pool but it was random. Nothing was posted. "

###statement from Great Wolf Park####

<http://wcpo.com/news/2007/local/03/07/great_wolf_comment.pdf>