Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren boge ol bamb Here. With summer fast approaching here in the United States, we need to talk about swimming pools and the dirty secret of swimmers peeing in the pool. It's not just gross, according to the American Chemical Society, it's bad for our health. Research has shown that there are about thirty to eighty million liters
of urine per person in public pools. That's about one to three ounces, or about a shot glassful per person. To counteract the urine and other stuff that winds up in the water like sweat, saliva, dirt, and traces of fecal matter, we add chemical disinfectants to keep pools clear and clean and to keep us from picking up bugs like salmonella and equally, and those disinfectants are doing their job,
but unfortunately that's not all they're doing. Those disinfectants can react with urine, sweat, hair and body care products, and other organic matter that winds up in pools and create what researchers call dis infection by products or DBPs. These byproducts can cause serious health concerns, especially for professional swimmers
and people who work around pools. Chronic inhalation of DBPs can cause respiratory problems such as asthma and are the main reason for the red burning eyes you may experience in the pool. And the number one culprit is you guessed it, urine, which causes half of the dvps found in pools and the air around them. Urine contains uria, a chemical that reacts with chlorine to form trichloramine, the compound that makes a pool smell like a pool. You'll
never enjoy that smell again. It's also the one to blame for eyeburn and respiratory issues, a real problem for competitive swimmers who spend so much time in the water. But cutting down on DBPs is tough, since urinating in the pool is something almost everyone does. It's just easier than getting out to take a leak, and people mistakenly think the chlorine will just take care of it. Even Olympic swimmers like Michael Phelps and Ryan Locktey joke about
their pool peeing. Ernest Blatchley, and environmental engineer Purdue University, said in an article in Chemical and Engineering News, high profile swimmers have a real opportunity to take a position of leadership and responsibility. The best thing that swimmers could do to improve the swimming environment for themselves and for everybody else who uses the pool is to practice common
sense hygiene. That means first, taking a shower before getting into the pool to rinse off much of the dirt, sweat, and lotion our bodies carry around. And second, but most important, don't p in the pool. But what about the ocean? Phish p there, so why not humans? Right? Well, you're in luck. It's absolutely a okay to swim and p with the fishes. Today's episode was written by Karen Kirkpatrick and produced by Tyler Clang. The brain Stuff is a
production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of other sort of gross but important topics, visit our home planet how stuff Works dot com. And for more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.