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Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

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231–240 of 353 posts

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#231
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you know a humane way to get children and seniors to never accidentally pee a little you could be making a lot of money.

Keep them in a separate pool or mandate pool diapers. Consider this thought experiment. You have a movie theatre where the people on the balcony may pee and that pee drips down on the faces of people below them. Would this be considered acceptable and would I be considered insensitive for complaining and insisting that those people wear diapers or else should not be in a place where their pee ends up in the faces of…

> Keep them in a separate pool or mandate pool diapers

Pool diapers have roughly zero effect on urine (the whole reason for pool diapers is to retain feces in an environment where liquid absorbent diapers inherently will fail completely.) So, the pool diapers plan for dealing with urination is unworkable.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#232
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Why do I bother lathering my hand for 20 seconds and losing fat and then rubbing alcohol on it after I accidentally splash a bit?

Because you don’t like the smell? You’re afraid other people will think you are gross? You have been trained to fear pee? In normal circumstances getting urine on skin (or drinking small amounts of it for that matter) is not going to cause you any health problem. Urine contains various toxins your liver removed from your bloodstream, so drinking large amounts of it might not be the best idea. Modern American (and pos…

Actually, if you are just using the bathroom to pee, you should probably wash your hands before you go, as your hands are usually "dirtier" than your genitals are.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No diaper can hold pee in while in a pool. Pool diapers only hold poo, and even then only some of it.

> Pool diapers only hold poo, and even then only some of it. Quite a lot, actually, but not all. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15216564/ “Swim diapers of all three brands exhibited an approximately equal fine-solids retention capability of about 98 to 99 percent over 30 minutes of water immersion activity. Conventional disposable diapers invariably fell down or came apart during the experiments, resulting in…

I wonder how well they work in the real world? I had trouble finding a properly fitting swim diaper for my son. They seemed to require a fairly tight fit around the abdomen and legs (which vary greatly across children and as the grow). Because it's only a handful of times during the summer and most places only carried 1 or 2 styles, I can see the few people who got them might not have the right size or wear it properly.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#234
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most pools require toddlers and infants to wear special swim diapers that provide some type of barrier to prevent pee (and worse) from getting in the water. Not that they're foolproof, but if you are swimming in a pool that doesn't require this, I would get out. There are some really nasty diseases that come from human waste that I would not want to come in contact with.

I wonder if that's a local thing or new thing. I've never heard of nor seen a diaper like that, and I used to go to lots of pools.

Swim diapers don't look like conventional diapers; they look pretty close to normal swim briefs (and in some cases are worn under other swimwear and are pretty unnoticeable.) They are a solids barrier, not filled with absorbent material like conventional diapers.

They also, contrary to GP, are not at all intended to control urine release, only feces.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#235
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Why do I bother lathering my hand for 20 seconds and losing fat and then rubbing alcohol on it after I accidentally splash a bit?

Because you don’t like the smell? You’re afraid other people will think you are gross? You have been trained to fear pee? In normal circumstances getting urine on skin (or drinking small amounts of it for that matter) is not going to cause you any health problem. Urine contains various toxins your liver removed from your bloodstream, so drinking large amounts of it might not be the best idea. Modern American (and pos…

Though interestingly, it can be according the article's summary of the study?

    More than 70 percent of the urine samples contained 
    bacteria, including at least 33 types of bacteria 
    (at the genus level) in normal urine. 
This suggests that 30% were sterile.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#236

This has been well-known by swimmers for a long time: chlorine itself is pretty much fine for you. It's the chemical reaction of chlorine with waste products, including human waste, that produces toxic byproducts and the concomitant "pool smell." If you swim in a well-maintained pool (e.g. one of my university's competition swimming pools), there's no "pool smell."

> chlorine itself is pretty much fine for you.

That's...not why it was used in warfare.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#237

As a longtime swimmer and water polo player, my eyes have been absolutely wrecked by harsh pools many, many times. However, I don’t think it’s pee. First off, every swimmer pees in the pool. I have been a part of tens of thousands of man-hours in the pool and seen people get out to pee maybe three times. I have been in the first games of the day at water polo tournaments and have seen them chlorine shock the water fo…

> First off, every swimmer pees in the pool Straight up lie. I've swum for two decades and never pissed in a pool. Losing 30-60secs from a set to go take a piss is nothing. In Australia at least, pissing in the pool is considered repulsive. I don't doubt that some people piss in the pool, but I've never been in a squad and felt a "warm patch". If that did happen, others would notice and the person would be socially o…

I don't know why you are getting downvoted, but I swam and played water polo in the US and we don't have a culture of 'just pee in the pool'. I don't remember a single instance of someone announcing peeing in the pool, let alone it being acceptable.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First off, every swimmer pees in the pool A friend expressed this to me once when I caught her peeing in the pool and I was honestly skeptical that "everyone does it" as I would have never felt comfortable doing that. Still don't.

When you’re in the water that much, I think you just end up getting desensitized to it. I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Teammates going to a corner and openly declaring “don’t come over here I’m peeing.” Coaches literally encouraging it, saying it’s not worth it to get out and miss a set when you can stay in the water: “your urine is just a tiny, minuscule fraction of the total volume anyways” When you…

"Everyone does it" does not mean "it's harmless".

If you want to see other examples of ubiquitous practices that were treated as harmless and necessary to be competitive and ultimately shown to be incredibly harmful, I would just refer you to {the entire history of competitive and professional sports}.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vaguely remember this being a plot point in an episode of 'The Adventures of Pete and Pete'†. I'm sure there are plenty of chemists that have valiantly attempted to find something that could both stay stable in UV-blasted chlorinated water and react with a weak acid to give an absorption in the visible wavelength. . .but that is a very long and hard-to-fulfill wishlist. Anyway, it's just any sort of amine reacting…

Pete & Pete continues to be one of those weirder shows that definitely messed me up from watching it as a kid. I seem to have some weird suppressed memory of a brain freeze episode as well. Weird stuff.

I remember a brain freeze episode as well! I can't really recall the plot anymore, but that one definitely stuck with me for some reason.

Re: Pee, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes from Swimming Pools: CDC (2015)

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's true then why do people go nuts if you shit in a river while camping?

They are picturing themselves drinking your shit most likely. Historically human beings contaminating the same water they draw from has been a substantial cause of illness even if campers now are much more apt to get water from a bottle.

Wouldn't it be very diluted, to the point it is no more harmful than whatever else may be in that river water?
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