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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)

#311

Post by eesmith »

Groxx wrote: post #290
eesmith wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Quoting myself in the comment you replied to, "the trichloramine product of chlorine interacting with urea".

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

#312

Post by xiii1408 »

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 (submerged below the surface for five seconds twice). The fatigued rats ceased training immediately, were removed from the water for a short break, showered with running water and then dried with hair dryers."

So, systematically drowning rats until they aspirate water, every day for twelve weeks. And they showed negative respiratory effects. Huh.

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

#313

Post by trumped »

jjeaff wrote: post #297
tj-teej wrote: post #266

I see a lot of comments in these threads regarding the old idea of a red cloud to indicate someone has peed in the pool. This idea never dies and I think I know where it started... When I was a lifeguard, we had to test the pH levels of the pool water every few hours. This entailed taking a sample of water, adding a few drops from a dropper and noting the shade of red the sample turned. We would tell the kids that we…

I've always heard it was blue. And have seen movie scenes with blue as well.

who doesn't want blue pool water?

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

#314

Post by trumped »

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.

have the kids drink a 1/8 of a cup of pool water when they get out (just kidding)

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

#315

Post by pard68 »

mchannon wrote: post #291
angry_octet wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 d…

"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?

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

#316

Post by shalmanese »

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?

Yes

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

#317

Post by bArray »

Wasn't the pool closed due to aids?

Memes aside, it certainly shows how it's easy to draw an incorrect conclusion. It really makes me second guess how healthy swimming in a pool really is. Lots of people jumping in and out of the same water is an problem waiting to happen.

As children we used to swim and kayak in the sea (to the point where we could no longer see the coast, which in hindsight was very dangerous). I wonder how being in the sea compares to a pool?

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

#318

Post by hudibras »

mchannon wrote: post #183

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…

The article does mention several times that people should shower before using the pool, in addition to not urinating in the water.

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

#319

Post by jsilence »

Your pools are still being sanitized with chlorine?

The fact that the 'chlorine' smell stems from urine in the pool is news to you?

This has been common knowledge for decades now and most of the public pools here in Germany have been retrofitted to O2 base sanitization to eliminate the chlorine.

So all the authorities actually do about it is print a warning on paper?

This is odd.

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

#320

Post by Beskz »

tptacek wrote: post #210
nck4222 wrote: post #173

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…

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

“It’s good for you”

-WCF

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