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Urine, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes in Pools (2015)

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Urine, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes in Pools (2015)

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slightly off topic, but you should shower to avoid temperature difference too, specially in hot days. I don't know about the lifeguard situation in USA, in Italy it's pretty terrible; it should be absolutely required to have a shower before jumping in the water.

Could you explain the thing about the temperature difference? What's that about? Also, where do you have lifeguards? Indoors, outdoors? I don't remember seeing any at all here in Sweden.

There are a variety of reasons why it's considered best practice to make people have a shower before entering the pool. They already explained it, talking about elderly people / etc. If it's sunny and you are out of the water from three hours tanning, your heart adjust to a certain frequency. If you jump in with any prior advice to your body into the water, heart has to adjust to a much different frequency, and an heart attack is possible.

The problem here is that a lot of people doesn't know what's going on with their hearth and certainly a lifeguard doesn't know about.

Also, adding to that, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_shock_response

I don't know about Sweden situation, but it seems really weird that no lifeguard was there. In Italy every public or private place with a pool needs a number of lifeguards according to the number of people of the pool / the pool's dimension. It's really easy to have some heart attack or hypoxia going unnoticed, example: X person jump in, simply doesn't get up. Also, time is key, if an heart attack occurs a close defribillator with someone able to use that / a lifeguard able to transport that person out of the pool without damages (it's not that easy as it sounds) can be really important. Drowning situations are even more dangerous, a drowning person can have a force in their arms able to do real damage and everything needs to be deal in the safest way.

Re: Urine, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes in Pools (2015)

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never swam for exercise in lanes before, but I always assumed you'd only have one person in a lane at a time. How does it work to have two in one lane? If I'm swimming and someone wants to share my lane, do I swim out, wait for them to get to my side, then swim back when they reach my side? (And if I'm the slower person, I assume I start swimming behind them as soon as they launch off from the edge?) It'd also b…

During peak times, my YMCA wants 5 to a lane. It’s tough because you have competition level swimmers, people who were competitive swimmers and casual swimmers. Some folks are having fun, others are pushing. Customs vary by when and where you learn them, and it’s feels very hostile, especially for casual swimmers. (In my online experience, the closest thing is the “eternal summer” phenomena in Usenet in olden times) I…

>the closest thing is the “eternal summer” phenomena in Usenet in olden times

Surely it must be the Eternal September :) [1]

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

Re: Urine, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes in Pools (2015)

#95
post #71
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chloramines, or combined chlorine are the by-products of free chlorine reacting with organic material. If there are too many, the pool has been improperly treated, or a huge amount of organics has overwhelmed the system. Chlorinates are things into which you've added or introduced chlorine.

Thanks for this clarification, my knowledge of chemistry is quite poor. I remember the pool manager trying to tell me that 'if anything, the chlorine levels are low'. I suspect this was because any chlorine they added was very rapidly being turned into chloramine by-products.

Yes, that's usually the case. Chlorine is actually pretty odorless until it reacts with something.

Re: Urine, Not Chlorine, Causes Red Eyes in Pools (2015)

#96
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During peak times, my YMCA wants 5 to a lane. It’s tough because you have competition level swimmers, people who were competitive swimmers and casual swimmers. Some folks are having fun, others are pushing. Customs vary by when and where you learn them, and it’s feels very hostile, especially for casual swimmers. (In my online experience, the closest thing is the “eternal summer” phenomena in Usenet in olden times) I…

>the closest thing is the “eternal summer” phenomena in Usenet in olden times Surely it must be the Eternal September :) [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

I’m eternally grateful you picked that up! :)
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