Papas Fritas writes:
Urine is sterile, and chlorine is sterilizing. At least that's the justification swimmers offer themselves, to counter their shame. What's more, decorated Olympic swimmers Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte admit they do it too. "It's kind of a normal thing to do with swimmers," says Phelps. "You know, when we're in the water for two hours we don't really get out, you know, to pee."
It turns out that it's a pretty bad idea, for more reasons than just the ick factor as Julie Beck writes that a new study published in the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science & Technology, has looked at the chemistry of what happens when urine meets chlorine, and it's not pretty. When researchers mixed uric acid, found in both urine and sweat, with chlorine, they found that both trichloramine and cyanogen chloride form within an hour. "We know that there are associations between some of these chemicals and adverse human health outcomes, so we're motivated to understand the chemistry behind their formation and decay," says Ernest Blatchley III.
Exposure to trichloramine has been linked to respiratory problems (PDF), and cyanogen chloride can adversely affect the lungs, central nervous system, and cardiovascular system. Another issue is if a lot of people are peeing in the pool, there's the potential for a lot of cyanogen chloride to form, depleting the chlorine in the pool. While the cyanogen chloride would normally decay quickly, less chlorine means it might stick around longer, and that could be a real problem. All of this is to say that peeing in the pool is not harmless, despite Phelps' and Lochte's claims that it's normal and everybody does it. "There's a lot of people in the swimming community who look up to these people and listen to what they have to say," says Blatchley "[Phelps and Lochte] are not chemists and shouldn't be making statements that are that false."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Scareb on Thursday March 27 2014, @11:31PM
Chlorine itself in high enough concentration is bad for humans... dilute it in a large pool of water and not so much (if proportioned right)..
Of course keeping with time honored tradition, I did not read TFS.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by stderr on Thursday March 27 2014, @11:52PM
Wait a minute! That sounds like homeopathy [soylentnews.org].
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Friday March 28 2014, @01:00PM
(Score: 2, Informative) by gordo on Friday March 28 2014, @12:42AM
Chlorine gas (Cl2) is lethal in even small amounts. Chlorine ions suspended in water are generally not.
(Score: 2) by snick on Friday March 28 2014, @12:52AM
Chlorine that has been introduced to sodium (another nasty piece of work when it is on its own) makes food tasty.
(Score: 2) by hankwang on Friday March 28 2014, @06:57AM
"Chlorine gas (Cl2) is lethal in even small amounts. Chlorine ions suspended in water are generally not."
What is your point? What you smell in a swimming pool is chlorine gas. In swimming pool water you have a chemical equilibrium between hypochlorite ions (ClO-) an chlorine molecules (Cl2). ChloriDe ions (Cl-) are there from sweat, urine, and as a reaction product after hypochlorite has oxidized other materials.
Avantslash: SoylentNews for mobile [avantslash.org]