The amount of urine in municipal swimming pool water can reach 75 liters. And affect the eyes, heart, lungs and central nervous system.
Admit: between two breaststrokes, casually, you relieved yourself in the municipal swimming pool. A little pee in this immensity of water, who will notice it? Think again. Your neighbor may not have seen anything, but science has confused you.
The municipal swimming pool in which you splash would contain between 30 and 75 liters of urine, according to a study published a few weeks ago in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. This is the equivalent of a street trash can. So, does the urge to let go?
Jacuzzis: it’s worse
To measure the amounts of this fluid in swimming water, the authors evaluated the acesulfame potassium (ACE) concentrations of two municipal swimming pools in Canada over a three-week period. This dye, which is very present in food, is poorly synthesized by the human body. It is therefore barely found altered in the urine of almost everyone.
By extrapolation, the researchers were able to estimate using this test how many liters of urine had been released into these waters. They also tested it on a hundred swimming pools and jacuzzis. Their observation is clear: it is in jacuzzis that we find the most ACE and therefore the most urine. For example, a hotel jacuzzi had a concentration of sweetener three times greater than that of the most affected pool.
Health effects
The team explains that the test they developed can be used in all pools to measure the amount of unwanted fluid and to educate swimmers. Because the presence of urine in swimming pools is not only disgusting; it also represents a health risk for swimmers.
Indeed, previous work has shown that the chemicals in urine, when mixed with chlorine which disinfects water, form a new harmful substance. Cyanogen chloride particularly affects the lungs, heart and central nervous system. The presence of urine in swimming pools also increases the risk of asthma and bladder cancer.
Moreover, if you thought that you owed your red eyes to the chlorine of the swimming pool, know that you are wrong … it is still a question of urine!
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