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Even though Olympic swimmers have admitted doing it, peeing in the pool is not a condoned practice. Urine contributes to the formation of compounds in pool water that can be harmful to people's health. Now scientists are tackling a new way to monitor water quality: by measuring how sweet it is. Their report appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
Recent studies have shown that nitrogenous compounds (e.g., urea) in urine and sweat react with chlorine to form disinfection byproducts (DBPs), including trichloramine, that can cause eye irritation and respiratory problems. Xing-Fang Li, Lindsay K. Jmaiff Blackstock and colleagues say this evidence has highlighted the need for improved understanding of pool chemistry to raise awareness and educate the public on the importance of swimming hygiene practices. To estimate how much urine -- and potentially DBPs -- might be in a given pool, Li's team needed to identify what compound might consistently be present in urine. So the researchers turned to the artificial sweetener, acesulfame potassium (ACE), which is marketed as Sunett and Sweet One. The sweetener, which is often used in processed foods like sodas, baked goods and even in other sweeteners, is widely consumed, chemically stable and passes right through the digestive tract and into consumers' urine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02 2017, @12:02AM (4 children)
I don't drink any soft drinks (only hard ones) and eat only crispy bacon, I can piss in the pool undetected!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Thursday March 02 2017, @12:46AM (2 children)
pulls standard-issue package of bacon:
.. Unless the Artificial flavour is sweetener, looks like you may be safe: only real sugar.
On topic: why not just detect the eye-irritating compounds directly?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 02 2017, @02:51AM (1 child)
I will throw this one out just for fun.... find some harmless reagent that changes from transparent to bright orange upon the presence of urea.
Maybe releases foam as well.
The resultant embarrassment from being immediately identified upon commission of the deed will stop this dead-on.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DECbot on Thursday March 02 2017, @04:33AM
Threat of such agent in pools has been around for decades to encourage kids not to piss in the pool. Snopes has the fun write-up [snopes.com] but Wikipedia does a good job too of debunking such an agent. As a lifeguard, I always told the kids that it would not only cloud the water purple but it would also stain the swimsuit.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Thursday March 02 2017, @04:39AM
Your thoughts are similar to mine. I had two questions:
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base