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

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

#321

Post by tempestn »

spectralwarp wrote: post #288
photojosh wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

+1 for troublefreepool.com. Anyone with a pool or spa (hot tub) should read through their 'pool school' section, and then take any questions to the forums. (Probably don't even need to post; every imaginable question has already been asked and answered there.)

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

#322

Post by dpcan »

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #12

I've always wanted a product that you could add to the swimming pool water that reacts to human urine by coloring the water immediately surrounding the pee-er. Say a neon orange or red. Over time, the colored water gets diluted and disappears. Maybe pee-shaming is what's required to stop people from doing it.

Kids today would do it just to see the colored circles.

EDIT: Come to think of it... kids from my day tried it because they heard that's what it would do. So. Doesn't matter. Wouldn't help. People are still peeing in the pool. I, personally, cannot fathom doing such a thing. Who is okay peeing in a pool other people are using? Who?

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

#323

Post by tempestn »

dangerbird2 wrote: post #206
xkcd-sucks wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically, if chlorine isn't generating chloramine, then the chlorine is useless to begin with

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.

As well as shocking when necessary, just keeping a sufficient level of chlorine can help with continuously oxidizing chloramines. Often when you get buildup it's because the chlorine level in the pool dipped too low. In fact, for a residential pool that doesn't normally see large numbers of swimmers, if the chlorine level is kept consistent (somewhere between one and several ppm depending on things like pool type, whether a salt water chlorine generator is used, amount of sunlight, etc.), shocking regularly may not even be necessary. (We almost never shock ours, and with our SWG running at around 20% about 8 hours per day, consistently maintain 1-2ppm free chlorine, and almost zero combined chlorine (chloramines). Again, YMMV depending on a number of factors, but the key is to keep a sufficient free chlorine level (which may mean boosting it up in anticipation of a large swimmer load, such as before a party), and then yes, shocking if it does drop down too low and chloramines spike.

It's extremely helpful to have a decent test kit, like the ones sold by Taylor. The color-change 'strips' are almost worse than useless, as they can often give misleading readings. The info at troublefreepool.com is also very useful when first learning this stuff.

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

#324

Post by adrianN »

xiii1408 wrote: post #312
keypusher wrote: post #47

Chlorine reacts with pretty much any organic compound (hair, sweat, skin, urine) to produce chloramine. And yes, while this is the thing that irritates your eyes, it's not to say that chlorine is harmless either. There is evidence for respiratory and organ damage from extended exposure to chlorinated pools. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4351252/

> "Unfortunately, one of the rats accidentally drowned during swimming training; therefore, the final animal number of the [experimental group] was 17." Damn, poor guy. > "When training, a screw nut approximately 3% of their mean body weight was tied to the top end of the tail of each rat, and all rats were kept in the special pools with water of 60 cm depth (water temperature 25–30°C, pH 6.5–7.0) until fatigued (sub…

They had a control group that also had the training.

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

#325

Post by KuhlMensch »

pard68 wrote: post #315
mchannon wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"saying they don't work is bizarre"- that it doesn't work is pretty much exactly what the article says, and it's true, as long as "work" is defined as not turning your eyes red. Shock is useful for raising the total chlorine concentration in the pool, which is useful for discouraging bacteria, but it'll boil off in a day. If you have more amines to tie up chlorine than you add chlorine, bacteria and algae grow becaus…

Do people actually water lawns outside of Hollywood and golf courses?

In semi-arid southern Australia, even with a native (low-rainfall) grass, the "lawns" need help through the summer. In the cities I've no idea of the split between native grasses and thirsty "decorative" grasses - but both are common.

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

#326

Post by dang »

vichu83 wrote: post #281
a_t48 wrote: 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?

We've banned this account for using HN for racial/national flamewar. That's emphatically not what this site is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#327

Post by dang »

a_t48 wrote: post #274
vichu83 wrote: post #269

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…

Please don't engage in this kind of flamewar on HN, no matter how provocative some other comment is.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#328

Post by sincerely »

kerbalspacepro wrote: post #248
ajakate wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I played club water polo when I was college. We would have tournaments at neighboring universities and we once visited a pool that was apparently sanitized with bromine instead of chlorine (The bromine pools had a much saltier taste). We were warming up for a game and someone noticed that peeing in the pool actually turned the water green, and we all started doing it. The lifeguard saw us all huddled by the edge and…

Why on earth would you pee in the pool to begin with?

Every competitive swimmer or water polo player pees in the pool. Nobody really cares about it.

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

#329

Post by londons_explore »

frandroid wrote: post #299
clarkevans wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be it airborne chlorine or chlormines, it is an air-quality challenge. Facilities need to take pool ventilation seriously, especially ways to draw fresh air across the water surface where chloramines tend to linger (they are heavy). However, getting facilities to upgrade their ventilation is hard: it is a substantial cost and there are very little health and occupational safety regulations. Standard pool inspections…

Not to mention that good air ventilation close to the pool's surface has the side effect of accelerating evaporation and thus cooling the water, requiring more energy to keep the temperature up...

Putting the exhaust air through a heat exchange unit or dehumidifier can collect most of the evaporated water and lost heat.

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

#330

Post by svrtknst »

xiii1408 wrote: post #312
keypusher wrote: post #47

Chlorine reacts with pretty much any organic compound (hair, sweat, skin, urine) to produce chloramine. And yes, while this is the thing that irritates your eyes, it's not to say that chlorine is harmless either. There is evidence for respiratory and organ damage from extended exposure to chlorinated pools. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4351252/

> "Unfortunately, one of the rats accidentally drowned during swimming training; therefore, the final animal number of the [experimental group] was 17." Damn, poor guy. > "When training, a screw nut approximately 3% of their mean body weight was tied to the top end of the tail of each rat, and all rats were kept in the special pools with water of 60 cm depth (water temperature 25–30°C, pH 6.5–7.0) until fatigued (sub…

> systematically drowning rats until they aspirate water

We prefer the term "advanced interrogation techniques"

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