• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

NPR: Just How Much Pee Is In That Pool?

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Cornballer

Member
Just How Much Pee Is In That Pool?
You know that sharp odor of chlorine from the swimming pool you can recall from earliest childhood? It turns out it's not just chlorine, but a potent brew of chemicals that form when chlorine meets sweat, body oils, and urine.

But up until now, just how much urine has been difficult to measure, says chemist Xing-Fang Li of the University of Alberta. Li and her colleagues report they can now tell roughly how much pee is in a pool by measuring the artificial sweeteners carried in most people's urine. Certain sweeteners can be a good proxy for pee, she says, because they're designed to "go right through you" and don't break down readily in pool water.

The scientists calculated that one 220,000-gallon, commercial-size swimming pool contained almost 20 gallons of urine. In a residential pool (20-by-40-foot, five-feet deep), that would translate to about two gallons of pee. It's only about one-hundredth of a percent, but any urine in a swimming pool can be a health concern for some people, not to mention that smell that never quite goes away.
Click to expand...
"I think you can assume that if people are using your pool, they're peeing in it," says Ernest Blatchley III, an environmental engineer at Purdue University.

Apart from being gross, that's also a potential health hazard. Chlorine reacts with urine to form a host of potentially toxic compounds called disinfection byproducts. These can include anything from the chloramines that give well-used pools the aforementioned odor, to cyanogen chloride, which is classified as a chemical warfare agent. There are also nitrosamines, which can cause cancer. There's not enough evidence to say whether the nitrosamine levels in pools increase cancer risk, Blatchley says, but one study in Spain did find more bladder cancers in some long-term swimmers.
Click to expand...
The simplest solution: Just don't pee in the pool. And tell all your friends not to do it, either. "I view it like secondhand smoke," Blatchley says. "It's disrespectful and potentially dangerous."

Also, swimmers should shower before getting in the pool, and get out to go to the bathroom, Li says. Even a one-minute rinse before diving in can remove much of the sweat and body gunk that reacts with chlorine.

Once someone does pee in the pool, the only way to truly get rid of it is to replace the water. "It's not uncommon for water in a pool to go unchanged for years," Blatchley says, since many pool owners or operators just add water as needed rather than completely replacing it, which is more expensive.

And the longer water sits in a pool, the worse it gets, his research has shown. Over time, people add more chlorine to the water, which is converted to a form called chloride that builds up and encourages the formation of yet more disinfection byproducts.

Li says she's a regular swimmer, and doesn't want to discourage people from a healthy activity. "This isn't to scare people," she says, "but hopefully they can prevent the problem."
Click to expand...
More via the link.
 
south-park-s13e14c07-you-gotta-swim-16x9.jpg
 
It's like no one's ever thought of flopping their dongs off the side of their private pools and relieving yourself that way.

(above-ground only, pee at your own risk w/ in-ground)
 
I am reminded of that GAF thread we had last year where it turns out that way too many of you dirty ass motherfuckers don't have the decency to shower before entering the pool.
 
Exactly the reason I refuse to swim in public pools.

But I also don't have my own pool, so I basically don't swim ever.
 
Wasn't there some substance that pools were using that reacted with urine to make it extremely obvious when someone did? It basically shamed people out of doing it. Or maybe I'm making that up.
 
I think kids are going to pee in the pool no matter what you tell them. Adults should know better, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone in a backyard or resort setting shower BEFORE getting in the pool, despite seeing the signs suggesting such.
 
I have never pissed in a pool, i don't understand why this is even a thing. Just get out, go piss and come back. Or hold it.
 
mike6467 said:
Wasn't there some substance that pools were using that reacted with urine to make it extremely obvious when someone did? It basically shamed people out of doing it. Or maybe I'm making that up.
Click to expand...

No, there is no such substance, but it's a good story to tell to keep people who aren't smart from peeing in your pool.
 
I haven't gone swimming in a public pool since I was 10/12 or so. Some 20 years ago. No matter how clean anyone will tell me it is, I have no interest in swimming around in some liquid with some kids doing god knows what to it.

I do swim in the ocean though, from time to time. I try not to think about the fact that there are monsters, toxic waste and actual dead bodies in there somewhere.

But I only swim in the ocean with friends on vacation, like night swimming or something fun. I mostly just don't like kids I guess.
 
New002 said:
This is an episode of Pete & Pete.
Click to expand...

And the movie Grown-Ups

But yeah it's not a real thing

Boem said:
I haven't gone swimming in a public pool since I was 10/12 or so. Some 20 years ago. No matter how clean anyone will tell me it is, I have no interest in swimming around in some liquid with some kids doing god knows what to it.

I do swim in the ocean though, from time to time. I try not to think about the fact that there are monsters, toxic waste and actual dead bodies in there somewhere.

But I only swim in the ocean with friends on vacation, like night swimming or something fun. I mostly just don't like kids I guess.
Click to expand...

I have never gotten a strange, stubborn rash or gotten really sick after swimming in a pool. The ocean tho
 
mike6467 said:
I didn't even watch that show, where the fuck am I getting this? Ah well, money to be made if someone could create it.



Haven't seen that either. Must've picked it up from someone else who thought it was real. My bad.
Click to expand...

That urban legend has been kicking around since my parents were kids

They could never really use it. Kids don't give a fuck
 
I don't know Urine combined with chlorine to form other toxic chemicals. I just assumed if everyone' s renal system was working properly that pee would be basically clean.
 
Also, swimmers should shower before getting in the pool, and get out to go to the bathroom, Li says. Even a one-minute rinse before diving in can remove much of the sweat and body gunk that reacts with chlorine.
Click to expand...

i learned last summer that a majority of gaffers refuse to shower before jumping in the pool, regardless of the rules
 
The scientists calculated that one 220,000-gallon, commercial-size swimming pool contained almost 20 gallons of urine. In a residential pool (20-by-40-foot, five-feet deep), that would translate to about two gallons of pee.
Click to expand...

That is unlikely to translate equally; a commercial pool has dozens or hundreds of people using it a day. The sheer amount of urine is based on that, not the size of the pool.

Also there's likely a very different rate of people peeing in a residential pool; you'd think it would be lower. So way less people, less likely to pee... BAD SCIENCE!
 
I can understand peeing in a public pool purely because I know people don't give a damn about property that isn't theirs but why would you piss your own pool.
 
Damn it, America. Change to metric already. Much easier to talk about liters and cubic meters especially when talking about water that gallons and feet.

But back on topic: nothing like 20 gallons of pee to make me feel disgusted.
 
I'm sure I'm missing something obvious about human nature here but why the fuck would you even want to piss in a pool? I can't even wrap my head around the thought of an adult doing this.

Then again, I've seen how bad public restrooms can get. Ugh.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

How much do you love tacos?
2
75
689
Tunned replied
How much do you love tacos?
2
122
Rentahamster replied
  • Poll
Pee Sitting Or Standing?
2 3
142
3K
Pete the Ferret replied
Just a reminder how awesome Eddie Van Halen was
8
564
EviLore replied
Can you think of a band that sucks as much as Primus?
2
65
1K
ConkerTheSquirrel. replied
Top Bottom