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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)

#201

Post by Zenst »

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/

Makes you wonder about outdoor swimming pools (which would equally include water parks) that use chlorine. Given UV breaks it down, it would explain why outdoor pools that use chlorine, tend to have higher levels to counter the increased loss.

Which makes you wonder about exposure, whilst out in the open, the levels of chlorine gas given off would be higher. So a sunny calm day, may well be the case of higher exposure levels than a shaded indoor pool. Equally indoor pools that are exposed to UV sources would theoretically be the worst offenders in chlorine exposure.

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

#202

Post by [deleted] »

gambiting wrote: post #58
deepGem wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gosh this is not gonna go well with the public. I know several kids who just can't hold pee in the pool. They'll just let it out. Also its not like the toilets are right there. You often have to get out of the pool, walk like 100 yards or down a flight of stairs. It's a PITA. Even Michael Phelps once said in an interview that very rarely competitive swimmers get out of the pool to pee.

I'm constantly shocked and disgusted that people actually pee in pools and that it's not some joke someone made up somewhere.

[deleted]

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

#203

Post by vokep »

michaelmrose wrote: post #129
deepGem wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gosh this is not gonna go well with the public. I know several kids who just can't hold pee in the pool. They'll just let it out. Also its not like the toilets are right there. You often have to get out of the pool, walk like 100 yards or down a flight of stairs. It's a PITA. Even Michael Phelps once said in an interview that very rarely competitive swimmers get out of the pool to pee.

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.

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

#204

Post by ivanhoe »

They talk about dichloramine and trichloramine which are the products of chlorine reaction with ammonia, but also any amino acid - which means it can come as well from reactions with any part of our body it gets in contact with, like almost 2 sq. meters of our skin. How did they rule out all those other sources?

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

#205

Post by HarryHirsch »

illumin8 wrote: post #73
sbov wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes kids even poop in the pool. Happened at a pool we went to last week.

I would never swim in a pool like this. Every pool I've been to required toddlers to wear special swim diapers to prevent exactly this scenario. There are some really nasty diseases that can spread through human waste, and I would not want to come in contact with them.

I wish they would ban swim diapers altogether. You never know what's in there, there probably is something, if the parents see the necessity. Just ban child and parent for a month if they can't hold it and spoil the pool for everyone.

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

#206

Post by dangerbird2 »

xkcd-sucks wrote: post #70
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/

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.

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

#207

Post by thinkingemote »

theothermkn wrote: post #140

Alright, I'm taking the karma hit. Why in the fuck is this on HN? How is this interesting to "hackers?" This is exactly the kind of click-baity stuff that HN is supposed to be known for not having. I just don't get it. I know we're not supposed to complain about how it ain't like the good ol' days on HN, but come the fuck on. Come. The. Actual. Fuck. On. This thread is indistinguishable from reddit. To wit: https://w…

There's always one of these types of comments, your account was made in 2014 so I imagine you might have visited https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html "If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

I guess this gratifies people's intellectual curiosity? Feel free to flag the submission.

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

#208

Post by paganel »

snazz wrote: post #130
ygjb wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, I hate to break it to you, but unless you swim in a dead body of water, there are worse things than human urine and feces in the water...

Where I live, plenty more people are infected from bacteria in goose poop in lakes than from human waste in swimming pools.

That’s why it’s never such a good idea to swim in a lake.

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

#209

Post by lotophage »

ham_sandwich wrote: post #30

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 ostracised.

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

#210

Post by tptacek »

nck4222 wrote: post #173
gambiting wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm constantly shocked and disgusted that people actually pee in pools and that it's not some joke someone made up somewhere.

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…

What was it W.C. Fields used to say about drinking water?
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