So on Saturday my eldest nephew celebrated his fifth anniversary and he wanted to go to the swimming pool, the same “subtropical paradise” we used to visit as kids in the eighties and which hadn’t changed since. I used to swim a lot as a kid, but have become grossed once I started to think too much about what was in that chlorine filled water and especially what people put in it. So I spent the afternoon in a beach chair catching up on my reading, which the family found hilarious and teased me about. Well, who’s laughing now:
While some people are disgusted by the thought of human pee in their pool water, others figure there’s no harm in letting loose a little urine while swimming. It turns out, however, that when urine reacts with chlorinated water, it may be creating chemical byproducts hazardous to everyone in the pool.
Cyanogen chloride (CNCl) and trichloramine (NCl3) are nitrogen-containing disinfection byproducts (N-DBPs) that are commonly found in swimming pools. In low levels, N-DBPs have been linked to eye and throat irritation, and in high levels, they have been linked to nervous and cardiovascular problems. It turns out that this toxic swimming pool environment may be caused, at least in part, by swimmers peeing in chlorinated pools.
So next time your eyes are stinging when you’re swimming in a public pool, it’s not the chlorine that’s causing it, it’s the byproducts of piss reacting to the chlorine…. (As my brother in law also pointed out on saturday)
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