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

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281–290 of 353 posts

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

#281
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I responded to the contents of the comment and the post. You sir, gave a condescending response that u are letting it slide. The mere assumption that brown people reporting racisim is wrong and that u let it slide shows your ignorance. If you are really you are right, we can take this in front of jury. Interested? I am 100% sure you ll complain if any picture online suggests sexism. Isn't that double standard? I post…

"White privilege" is hardly a stunning rebuttal. In any case... > The mere assumption that brown people reporting racisim is wrong and that u let it slide shows your ignorance. I never made the statement that you cannot report racism, only that in this case I thought you are in the wrong. You are free to report whatever you are like, just as I'm free to make a statement that I don't think it's correct. I was a little…

If you could tell me your employer name and your name, I ll send my lawyer to talk to them and to media. R u up for that? or r u just gonna be a closet racist?

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

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Gross" doesn't necessarily mean unhealthy. I swim in the San Francisco Bay 3 times a week, 25 minutes at a time, no goggles, just a cap and a bathing suit. I've swum near gross things like dead seagulls & dead seals, and I'm sure a lot of gross stuff drains into the Bay, but as long as the sewage treatment plant doesn't overflow I'm not worried.

Agreed, that's kinda my point. The evolutionary theory behind why we have feelings of grossness is just that "this thing is potentially dangerous to me," so we developed this sense of "gross" so we'd avoid the potentially harmful thing (although a quick google search doesn't bring back the study i'm thinking of that demonstrated this). But obviously that reinforced/learned feeling might not always be accurate. I get…

This reminds me of being grossed out by particular foods. Nowadays I take the approach that if people have eaten it for a long time, it's probably worth at least a try.

Perhaps helped out because my #1 example is chicken. Who doesn't like chicken?... me, as a kid, because it was often prepared terribly.

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

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, what about all the other body fluids/debris that are in pools? Saliva, sweat, earwax, belly button lint, bird shit, insects, band-aids, small animal carcasses that get trapped in the filters but are removed before the pool opens? There's no avoiding other peoples/animals grossness, frankly whether your in a pool or just out and about. Urine may be gross, but it's sterile, and at least for me, there are grosse…

Most of the things you listed you have no control over, but you can totally get out of the pool to pee. I see zero reason to pee in a public pool unless you are a toddler and have no control over it.

I read an article recently (can't find it) that the worst offenders are pro swimmers. They drink loads of water during their multi-hour workouts, and don't take breaks to go pee...

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

#284
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If said kids can't avoid peeing in the pool they shouldn't be in the pool or should be wearing diapers to avoid pissing all over fellow patrons. The restrooms are rarely convenient in big box stores or the mall they are often a fair hike away but you don't see little Johnny hiking up his leg to pee on his fellow shoppers.

I'm not sure how common it is, but I've seen/heard of on multiple occasions a kid needing to pee in a department store and the parent saying something like "just go over there", with "over there" being somewhere on the floor where employees can't see. Luckily this isn't a majorly normal thing, but it does happen from time to time.

Where in the world do you live?

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

#285
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"White privilege" is hardly a stunning rebuttal. In any case... > The mere assumption that brown people reporting racisim is wrong and that u let it slide shows your ignorance. I never made the statement that you cannot report racism, only that in this case I thought you are in the wrong. You are free to report whatever you are like, just as I'm free to make a statement that I don't think it's correct. I was a little…

If you could tell me your employer name and your name, I ll send my lawyer to talk to them and to media. R u up for that? or r u just gonna be a closet racist?

I don't appreciate being threatened. This is not appropriate behavior. If you're looking to sue me, I'm happy to give you an email to talk with your lawyer. Have a nice day.

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

#286

Mark Rober (glitter bomb) did a video on this. He also did a test on the "pool smell" if it really caused by pee reacting with chlorine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S32y9aYEzzo

Not sure I can trust anything from that dude. He realy did a number on his credibility by not making the glitter bombs, faking the 'prank', and lying about it afterward after being presented with clear evidince of his deception, and his pre-existing knowledge of it. No thanks, people who sell their credibility for views deserve no respect.

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

#287

This article's full of problems. The first reason chloramine gets to be a problem is users don't shower before entering the pool. The amount of urine a swimmer can introduce into the water is small compared to the amount of urea coming off their unwashed body. Icelandic people religiously shower before entering their shared baths, and look on non-showering the way we might look at people not bothering to wiping their…

Pool shock (a spike in active chlorine) will react with amines and oxidise them -- saying they don't work is bizarre. It is painful to do manually though. A UV filtration system is far easier, but also far more expensive.

Dumping water isn't practical as many places have water restrictions. Chlorine gas is produced in vast quantities industrially, then compounds like calcium chloride, sodium hypochlorite and sodium dichloroisocyanurate, which are used in both fresh water and waste water treatment. So when you dump your pool water you are still using chlorination, just at the municipal level.

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

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, which is why it's important to regularly "shock" the pool to oxidize the chloramines, typically by superchlorinating the pool, but much more effectively by adding ozone.

We just got a pool recently (salt-water chlorinator), and the advise out there on how to maintain one is just utter superficial garbage. I'd never heard your statement before, and I thought the shocking was just to keep the right level of chlorine. Seems like all the advice is heavily biased towards just getting your local pool shop to tell you what you need to add! Your comment on ozone made me do some quick searchi…

There is a lot of great information at https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum and https://www.troublefreepool.com/forums/ particularly from user 'chem geek'. This is where I was able to finally get a better understanding of pool/spa chemistry and figure out a routine that works for me.

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

#290
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scent of bleach and the scent of "pool smell" are almost exactly the same to me.

strangemonad elsewhere here posted a link to a video evaluating the question of how much pee there is in pools, using the excretion of an artificial sweetener - which is only in urine and not, like urea, also in sweat - as the indicator. The presenter is also dubious about the origin of the smell, and thinks that it comes from the chlorine, not the trichloramine product of chlorine interacting with urea. So he tests…

Any idea what makes tap water smell like a pool? It evaporates out pretty quickly (a day or so in a normal pitcher), whatever the cause, and I've always assumed it was chlorine since it smells like a tiny waft of bleach.
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