A Canadian study succeeded in determining the amount of urine present in public swimming pools and hot tubs.
You’ll never relax the same way in a Jacuzzi again. Canadian researchers have looked for the presence of urine in the pools of 31 public swimming pools and spas. And their discoveries could make you want to go take a dip …
Their test, the results of which were published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, measured the concentration in swimming pools and jacuzzis of a synthetic sweetener, acesulfame-potassium (ACE), which is usually found in industrial food and which has the particularity of not being metabolized by the body . It is therefore found in the urine.
After measuring ACE levels in two Canadian public swimming pools (one 830,000 liters, or one-third of an Olympic-size swimming pool, and one 416,000 liters) for three weeks, the researchers calculated that the unscrupulous swimmers had released 75 liters of urine in the first and about 30 liters in the second. An impressive figure, at first glance, but which, in the end, represents only 0.07 ml to 0.09 ml of urine in a liter of water, or a little more than a drop of urine per liter.
19% of adults have urinated in the swimming pool
But the researchers also took measurements in 8 hot tubs, and the results were much worse. The jacuzzi in a hotel even had a concentration three times greater than in the most dirty pool in the study. Maybe the guests of this hotel relaxed too much?
These results are in any case not so surprising since a study recently revealed that 19% of the adults questioned admitted having already urinated in a swimming pool at least once. And professional swimmers have even publicly admitted not to do without …
In any case, this is proof, if one was still needed, that no, a task does not appear when relieving yourself in the swimming pool. Which is no reason to take advantage of it!
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