Leisure centre users in Tayside and Fife have suffered electric shock, been hurt by ice skates and exposed to chemicals, amid thousands of recorded injuries.
New figures reveal almost 4,000 instances of injury noted by authorities running services in Perthshire, Fife, Angus and Dundee since January last year.
Among the usual slips, trips and falls were more serious incidents, including a high-profile chemical leak at East Sands Leisure Centre in St Andrews, and a “dangerous occurrence” in Levenmouth where a user suffered an electric shock.
Another injury described as a “minor shock” was sustained at Cupar Sports Centre on September 13 this year, while a spinal injury was reported at Kirkcaldy Leisure Centre last year.
At Webster’s Sports Centre in Kirriemuir an employee was burned by a “yellow liquid” that spilled on to their arms, leg, head and neck while cleaning shelves.
Ice skates ran over hands at Dundee Ice Area on several occasions, and some skaters suffered stab injuries from errant blades.
The freedom of information data revealed 925 injuries were recorded at the Olympia in Dundee over the same period more than 44 every month.
An identical total was logged at Perth Leisure Pool.
Conservative North East MSP Alex Johnstone said: “This is quite an alarming array of injuries that people have sustained.
“I welcome the fact that people are getting involved in physical activity, but these statistics suggest that perhaps we need a review at either local or national level of best practice and guidance for those taking part.
“The number of incidents that might be termed as workplace accidents is also a concern, and maybe it is time that procedures and training for staff employed in leisure centres are overhauled to ensure a safe working environment for them.”
Graham Wark, head of sport at Leisure & Culture Dundee, said: “In the period of data collection there were over 600,000 visits to Olympia. Every bump, scrape and bruise is recorded as part of a no-exemption approach.
“The reason we record all injuries, however minor, is to monitor trends and make sure our facilities are as customer friendly as possible.”
A spokeswoman for Perth operators Live Active Leisure said the city’s swimming pool has had more than 14 million visitors to date.
She added: “Inevitably some accidents will happen, and the overwhelming majority of them will be minor such as slips, bumps and grazes.
“In 2014-15, we had an accident rate of only 0.16% of total usages, with visitor numbers in excess of 0.36 million.”
A Fife Sports & Leisure Trust spokeswoman said: “Each site has an emergency action plan to deal with a variety of incidents that can occur where multi-activity facilities and programmes are on offer to the public.
“Qualified first aid staff are on site at all times staff are trained to take swift action according to the incident and, if necessary, to provide support until paramedic services take over.
“All incidents are recorded and reported, and, if follow-up action is identified, then it is implemented immediately.
“There were two incidences of staff receiving back shocks from electrical equipment which holds a charge once removed from the mains a qualified electrician checked the equipment as a precaution and in both cases they were found to be in safe working condition.
“To prevent similar incidents we have adapted the equipment to make touching the prongs in question less likely and have given further staff training to minimise any hazard.
“In the case of the chemical spill at East Sands Leisure Centre in St Andrews, staff followed the site’s emergency action plan very effectively and all customers and staff were safely escorted out of the building before emergency services arrived on site.”
An Angus Council spokesman said: “We take the welfare of our staff and customers very seriously and encourage the reporting of any incidents where people may have been injured, or experienced a health and safety issue on our premises.
“This allows us to conduct the inquiries and address any issues or learning that may be identified as a result of an incident or accident.”