A new study on the effects of urination in chlorinated water has found that it can form two chemicals, trichloramine and cyanogen chloride, which have been associated with lung problems and can affect the heart and nervous system. In short, peeing in your pool makes negligible amounts of harmful chemicals.
The study was published in the American Chemical Society's Environmental Science and Technology journal and involved chlorinating uric acid to look at the byproducts. One of the byproducts, cyanogen chloride, can affect organs through inhalation, and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that its maximum concentration in drinking water should be 70 micrograms per liter or less.
Another interesting fact about cyanogen chloride: it has a military designation of CK and is considered a chemical warfare agent.
The highest concentration that the team observed was around 33 micrograms per liter at 8 milligrams per liter of chlorine—a much higher chlorine concentration than is used in the average pool—which still falls under the levels considered safe enough by the WHO. While there is no imminent threat of poisoning yourself with your own urine in the pool, the authors state that both trichloramine and cyanogen chloride are "volatile" and "have the potential to adversely affect air and water quality in chlorinated, indoor pools." They further note that since peeing in a pool is a voluntary process, "opportunities exist for significant improvement of air and water quality… via changes in swimmer hygiene practices."
The study was sponsored in part by the National Swimming Pool Foundation, which offers certifications for pool and spa technicians.
DOI: 10.1021/es405402r, Environmental Science and Technology.
Promoted Comments
I am going to presume majority of people peeing in pool is children or toddlers and so is more or less an involuntary process... But I have lost faith in humanity before on more concerning matters.
Is this why chlorinated pools tend to stink more later in the day (i.e. after more people... and hence more pee... have been in them?).
I've definitely noticed that swimming later in the afternoon irritates my lungs a lot more than swimming early in the morning.
I stayed at a hotel that was also hosting about 40 kids between 8-12 years old, and while I have no direct knowledge of whether they peed in the hot tub or not... after they'd been in and out of it for a couple of hours, the water was opaque and you couldn't breathe within ten feet of it due to the overwhelming burning chlorine smell.
I asked my father in law about it, as he was certified for maintaining chemistry in a public pool. If I understood correctly, I believe he said the irritating smell that we think of as "chlorine" is actually chloramines, which are a by-product of free chlorine cleaning up biological molecules, whether urine, sweat, skin oils and shed skin cells, dirty feet, etc. By the time the pool stinks of "chlorine", the free chlorine is actually pretty well used up, and the pool needs to be shocked.
120 Reader Comments
I am going to presume majority of people peeing in pool is children or toddlers and so is more or less an involuntary process... But I have lost faith in humanity before on more concerning matters.
What?
In public pools in the UK, they sometimes use bromine products instead of chlorine, and also add a chemical that changes colour if someone pees in the pool. The offending person is then thrown out while everyone laughs at them, and not permitted back in the pool.
Also, I'd like to change that sign to:
"Welcome to our L
There's no POO in it
Keep it that way"
Yes, it's very shocking to find a dead baseball player floating in your pool :-)
No one should try to make their own hydrazine unless they want to end up in the Darwin Awards.
No, it has not, because the chemicals used to treat pool water and the practices surrounding using them have not been consistent over time. (They're not even really consistent today.)
shipee just got real!And Oddest Sentence of the Week Award goes to...
And now we know why they're called warm-ups!
Oh I think about it, especially when I see dead fish floating at the top.*
*And I haven't even farted.
NEWS ALERT!!!!
Chlorine is also considered a "chemical warfare agent"!
I am pretty sure that is an urban legend. Also, the active ingredient in urine (urea) is also produced in sweat, which people do in the pool all the time.
ah yes, here it is:
http://www.snopes.com/science/poolpiss.asp
And Oddest Sentence of the Week Award goes to...
Required citation: http://what-if.xkcd.com/74/
In Thailand, I saw people defecating in a river 30 feet upstream of other people brushing their teeth.
Now that gave me chills….
While salt is cheaper than chlorine, the systems are rather expensive, have an expensive part that requires replacement every 3-5 years, and they produce a significant amount of sodium hydroxide that must be offset with additional acid on a regular basis, negating some of the "lower maintenance" advantage. They're closer to a wash than I had hoped they'd be.
What are the chances of this actually happening?
The pool I swim at is adults only, lap swim only, thankfully. Some swimmers pee I nthe pool. But nothing compared to what hordes of kids may do.
I briefly swam at a little 25y pool near my house a few years ago. The lap swim time was right after little kids splash time. I could smell the byproducts of kid pee and chlorine in the water. Really objectionable rotten eggs smell. And I got two really nasty sinus infections back to back in the short time I swam there. Never had anything like that, before or since.
You must login or create an account to comment.