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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: 2) by istartedi on Friday March 28 2014, @01:26AM
Between the swimming pool and leaded gasoline, it's a wonder I made it past the age of six. Now, I'm not saying it's a good idea to pee in the pool. It's just that there is no need to freak. FWIW, I never made a habit of pissing in the pool. Now the ocean... that's another story. At the pool the bath/shower was right friggin' there. Maybe it was 50 feet from the edge of the pool to relief. Under those circumstances, not stepping out is just rude. At the ocean, you had to get out, walk across sand, into the motel, let your parents know what was up. For pee? It just wasn't worth it. Pissing in the ocean is like... pissing in the ocean. That said, you sometimes see advisories around the Bay Area beaches not to go swimming because of bacteria due to sewage. I doubt that's from bathers though. It's from poorly maintained municipal sewage systems overflowing. Yuck. Whales, sea lions, dolphins and every fish in the sea pisses off the coast; but I don't think that'd be enough to cause these alerts. I don't think surfers pissing in their wet suits would do it either. So. Pool? No. Ocean? Yes.
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(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday March 28 2014, @02:40AM
TFS is pretty clear I think: urine is sterile, so bacteria isn't a problem there. The problem with urine is how it reacts with chlorine, found in pools. Oceans don't have chlorine (they have sodium chloride, which is different). So you don't have anything to worry about.
Besides, whales and dolphins are mammals too, and (IANABiologist) likely have urine similar to our own, and they certainly don't get out to pee.