Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Adults & age-groupers take note: The poisonous pee byproducts lurking in swimming pools can affect multiple organs

Live Science did an "English" translation of a study regarding the health effects on the body when kids or adults pee in a swimming pool. It's not pretty. Pointblank the study states that swimming in such a "swill" can when inhaled, affect your lungs, heart, and central nervous system [read as one's nerves & brain]. So, peeing in a pool not only hurts you, it hurts everyone even the non-swimmers on deck.

I imagine that the health effects of this practice in an indoor pool would be worse.

From Live Science:

They found that two chemicals, cyanogen chloride and thrichloramine, are formed by the reaction of uric acid [otherwise known as pee] and chlorine. When inhaled, these chemicals are known to affect multiple organs, including the lungs, heart, and central nervous system. So it seems that peeing in the pool has its own punishment — it’s just too bad it affects everyone.

[Link]

Let's not make a "swill" out of the water we swim in. Encourage kids and teammates to be responsible.

Photo: flickr/tano_d’ere

2 comments:

Bill Ireland said...

This falls in the category of things I would rather not know. But thanks for posting anyway. :-)

Tony Austin said...

I agree, thank you.

In the summer we call the VNSO pool (Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Pool) PeeNSO.

On safe to swim on Sunday mornings post 16-hours of filtering