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New Scientific Test Finds Up To 75 Liters of Urine In Public Pools (theguardian.com)
Scientists have developed a test designed to estimate how much urine has been covertly added to a large volume of water. "The test works by measuring the concentration of an artificial sweetener, acesulfame potassium (ACE), that is commonly found in processed food and passed through the body unaltered," reports The Guardian. The findings are published in the American Chemical Society journal. From the report: After tracking the levels of the sweetener in two public pools in Canada over a three-week period they calculated that swimmers had released 75 liters of urine -- enough to fill a medium-sized dustbin -- into a large pool (about 830,000 liters, one-third the size of an Olympic pool) and 30 liters into a second pool, around half the size of the first. Although the researchers were unable to confirm exactly what fraction of visitors were choosing to quietly relieve themselves in the water rather than making the shivery trip to the changing rooms, the results suggest that the urine content was being topped up several times each day. The findings make for unwelcome reading, but swimmers might find some comfort in the measurements from eight hot tubs, which were found to have far higher urine levels. One hotel Jacuzzi had more than three times the concentration of sweetener than in the worst swimming pool. In total, the team sampled 31 different pools and tubs in two Canadian cities and found ACE to be present in 100% of the samples, with concentrations up to 570 times the background level in tap water samples. They used the average ACE concentration in Canadian urine to convert their measurements into approximate volumes of urine.
nope, no shit, just pee
They don't have piss poor swimming pools in Canada.
That works out to around 0.009% urine content.
I can live with that.
Captcha: "manure"
First - this is a copy/paste from Soylent. I thought they were supposed to be trying to be like Slashdot, not the other way around? We're used to mainstream news beating Slashdot to the punch by days, but when our own RIPOFF site has news before we do, that Slashdot copies...WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK?!?
Also...this test only works for people who are using one particular artificial sweetener. Since the discussion started around Olympic swimmers - and this test probably wouldn't work in Olympic pools since those swimmers are on rigorous diets...
Welp, I guess we just shift it to try being more topical.
Sometimes. I would prefer to enjoy life and be a total ignorant. Yet slashdot remind me that reality is not always good to know. That said, once you learn it, you never forget it! Happy swimming!
Not even a troll
So what's the concentration in bedsheets at the Ritz Carlton Moscow?
I'm just asking.
What the fuck is a "medium-sized dustbin"? That's a truly bizarre comparison to make in order to describe a volume of liquid.
I don't respond to AC's.
Urine, although not sterile as often thought, is pretty close to it. Pool chlorine takes care of the rest.
To quote William Claude Dukenfield, "I don't drink water. Fish fuck in it."
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Itsa Pee ina Pipi's Pi Pools!
But I think I can reach 100 liters in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
...The human tongue cannot taste salt until the PPM is around 5000.
Some type of in-pool heat-sensing technology not unlike airport scanners that can detect when people are releasing urine. The system can have body-tracking technology so that it can identify the actual people as they move around, and notify staff to take appropriate action.
Means nothing unless they calculate the release of the sweetener from sweat.
this is a WiFi contract
It's water soluble, no?
..it's 5 hundredths of a percent of the water volume. And since urine is 95% water, you're talking about less than 4 liters out of nearly a million liters of water. It wouldn't surprise me if the mass of dead skin or even hair was greater than non-aqueous urine components.
And since our swimsuits aren't hermetically sealed against our bodies, I'd wager there's some measurable amount of fecal matter in the pool too. Maybe some vaginal discharge and/or menstrual fluid, too. And you can't discount the amount of mucus and other sinus discharges along with some saliva from the people who like all of the above so much they get water in their mouths.
But in spite of all this (assuming the filtration and chlorination systems are working), the water in the pool is still way cleaner than most other bodies of water people swim in.
I've seen pictures of the Ganges that make me retch and people *bathe* in that water.
At least it's outside your body. Think of what happens when you go to a public bathroom that smells bad: what you're breathing was previously inside someone. I mean, the actual molecules that are entering your nose used to be part of someone else digestive system. Maybe even more than one person.
That's a lot worse than a bucket of piss diluted in a big pool filled with chlorine.
lucm, indeed.
is 75 litres? What of feces? Is this in any way related to Sessions-Russian Spy recruiter meetings that is coming out today?
I'm not a Starfleet commander, or T.J. Hooker. I don't
live on Starship NCC-170... , or own a phaser. I don't
know anybody named Bones, Sulu, or Spock (picture of Dr.
Benjamin Spock is shown on screen behind him). And no,
I've never had green alien sex, but I'm sure it'd be
quite an evening. (Pomp and Circumstance begins playing.)
I speak English and French, not Klingon! I drink
Labatt's, not Romulan ale! And when someone says to me
'live long and prosper', I seriously mean it when I say,
'get a life'. My doctor's name is not McCoy, it's
Ginsberg (nude picture of Dr. Ginsberg shown on screen).
And tribbles were puppets, not real animals. PUPPETS! And
when I speak, I never, ever talk like Every. Word. Is.
Its. Own. Sentence. I live in California, but I was
raised in Montreal. And I believe in priceline.com, where
you never have to pay full price for airline tickets,
hotels, and car rentals! I've appeared onstage at
Stratford, at Carnegie Hall, Albert Hall, and the
Monkland Theatre in NDG. And, yes, I've gone where no man
has gone before, but... I was in Mexico and her father
gave me permission! My name is William Shatner, and I am
Canadian!
p.s. I also enjoy pissing in swimming pools.
Checkov, Load photons and fire on that disgusting bastard.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
Also mildly disturbing to think that this is probably an under-estimate as it only works for pee passed by people who have consumed the artificial sweetener tested for. Still I've never been a fan of public swimming pools, so I might just use this stat next time the wife/kids start saying I should join them for a change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz4VT9zHLTU
I never really liked swimming in public pools. But I've swum in the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans, the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Baltic Seas and the Gulf of Mexico, and fish fuck in all those places, so really, it's a wash.
You are welcome on my lawn.
feels good man
A man was caught on CCTV urinating in reservoir and they empties 150M liters of water from reservoir. Assuming a pee is about 150 ml, this amount to 1ppb. That is 100,000 times less than swimming pool!
It's nonsensical fear-mongering, nothing more. (That's something of a Slashdot specialty, these days.)
75 liters of urine in an 830,000-liter pool is 90 parts per million. Even at the tripled concentration of the hotel jacuzzi, that's still only 271 parts per million. Choosing a random model (the J-335, which fits five people and has a typical fill capacity of 1,249 liters, that's a grand total of 1.4 cups of pee in the entire jacuzzi, and that's the worst sample they could find, mind you.
It's extremely diluted, to the point where even if you drank the water it would almost certainly have no effect on you.
They must cycle the water in the pool regularly or not have many kids in it, would have expected it to several times that volume
Where's Bear Grylls when you need him?
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
What about the concentration of ACE in sweat. Urine isn't the only liquid we 'sapiens ooze ...
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
So if I took perfectly clean water and spilled an ounce of Coke Zero into it, how much urine wold that be measured as?
What about the sea/ocean? Not near the sewers though.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Chlorine sterilizes the pee, poop, and dead skin which comes off humans, so disease does not spread. When I was a kid I didn't like the strong chlorine in pools. Just like asshole cops. But they are useful when you're an adult.
some how the mythbusters did not test any thing with this.
What in the world is a dustbin?
Sad we are at a point of having to classify things as "scientific test" since most things are not scientific tested anymore. Like climate change.
About 1,500 years ago, people stopped shitting in the pools and tubs: That was a big turning point for community health. Our skin isn't particularly clean, with sweat, saliva, sexual secretions, blood and probably some fecal debris, on it. All that adds more bacteria to the water, than a few litres of urine.
"ignoramus"
I barely ever come to Slashdot anymore.
Most articles are troll, flamebait and FUD.
Every time I read one, I leave Slashdot in disgust.
This time too.
This is Canada. Are they sure it's pisswater, or is it just that somebody spilled Canadian Beer?
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
It's extremely diluted, to the point where even if you drank the water it would almost certainly have no effect on you.
True, but don't forget the other additions, like spit, snot, semen, blood, sebum, pus, fecal matter, dandruff, pubic hairs and dead skin. The biomass that gets caught by filters is not insignificant, and it has generally been in the pool for a while before it gets sucked into the filters.
It's relatively safe with chlorination and good immune systems, but still something to remember before opening your mouth in a pool.
Clearly you don't know anything about homeopathic medicine! Water has a memory, so if someone pees in the hot tub, even if you drain all but a teaspoon of the water and refill the tub it will still contain the essence of that person's urine.
...that someone still needs to invent
42 hidden comments
Sometimes. I would prefer to enjoy life and be a total ignorant. Yet slashdot remind me that reality is not always good to know. That said, once you learn it, you never forget it! Happy swimming!
At least it's outside your body. Think of what happens when you go to a public bathroom that smells bad: what you're breathing was previously inside someone. I mean, the actual molecules that are entering your nose used to be part of someone else digestive system. Maybe even more than one person.
That's a lot worse than a bucket of piss diluted in a big pool filled with chlorine.
Seriously? In the case cited 75 liters of urine in a pool containing 830.000 liters of water we have an urine percentage of (75/830.000)*100 = 0.009036145% where 95% of that 0.009036145% urine is sterile water assuming they are talking about 75 liters of factory standard piss as it can be obtained from the manufacturer. The average human being accidentally ingests about 1kg of insect parts each year. That's 1 kg of critters, some of which crawled round on, and fed off of, faecal matter and rotting tissue!!! Ever wondered how delicacies like mouldy cheese and escargot were invented? I'll let you in on a secret, your ancestors fed off of things like rotting meat, ergot infested and otherwise spoiled grain, cats, dogs, insects, rats, mice, insects, slugs, soup made of bones dissolved in sour whey, the list goes on... If you two continue on this trajectory you'll both turn into Howard Hughes.
Why do people with hots tubs always have to try and one up everyone else. It's not some kind of pissing contest!
Whats the variation of this? I can't imagine sweetener consumption is so uniform that you can get to those 75l without a huge interval of uncertainity.
bickerdyke
That's not possible: they put a chemical that would react with your pee and give a bright color.
I would prefer to enjoy life and be a total ignorant.
How will this make you enjoy a public pool any less? You'll still come out smelling horribly with irritated eyes and skin dying for some moisturiser, and that has nothing to do with the level of urine in the pool. Hell anything that dilutes the chlorine is probably a plus.
and dirty, and couldn't care less about the suffering of others.
Clearly you don't know that urine has medicinal properties, according to auto urine therapy.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Newer scientific studies show pool water has medicinal properties.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I can see this research scoring a nomination for an Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year. For comparison, last year's prize went to Volkswagen AG for their innovative vehicle pollution control measures.
(this is not a
Isn't ACE also present in the sweat usually expelled by our bodies when we exercise?
Just get over it. It's always been like this. There's chlorine in the pool, the water is continuosly refreshed, nobody ever got sick from it, and you were just fine while you didn't know about it. There are many things you don't know, you know. For example, sweat is just a dort of diluted pee and we sweat all the time, we're literally covered in it. Our bodies are covered in bacteria, it's part of life, stop putting that disinfectant cream on your hands. When you kiss someone (not to mention... you know what...) yoy swallow bacteria they carry in theirmouth, the things that make us have bad breath after we sleep. And so on.
I like to go to the public bath, or onsen, in Japan. You wash thoroughly, then get into a bath with other people of the same gender, completely naked. Even nudists usually carry a towel or something to sit on because, you know, sweat and all that. In fact the baths are usually pretty hot and you can't help sweating a lot.
They don't use chlorine or anything like that in the pools. Often it's natural spring water. Somehow it's not a health hazard, although etiquette says you shouldn't drink that water.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
To maintain internal salt/water balance, freshwater fish pretty much constantly excrete liquid waste.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
What if someone spilled a bit of their diet soda in the pool by accident? How would that impact the numbers? Does that molecule get excreted in sweat, also?
Urine my pool; please don't pee
Well, I don't consume artificial sweetners AND I pee in pools.
...or touch anything. You will be shocked, SHOCKED (I tell ya) at the sheer amount of germs, microbes, parasites, toxins and waste that float in the air and are on EVERY SURFACE.
Yeah, when I read that headline, my initial response was "that's all?"
I thought for sure it would be in the 1% range.
Which is a real problem in those little seashell pools you get that hold about 80L...
I smoke a pack a day which kills my sense of smell enough that this isn't an issue.
You really, really, REALLY have to be into homeopathy if you think at that dilution it can have any meaningful effect on you.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Sorry.
Change the vending machines to only have juice and the problem will disappear.
The Hot Tubs need to turn up the filtration cycle.
Does the average pool filter get this out?
How long does it take, so what is the pee frequency this is showing?
You don't sit on the towel in the bath do you?
And I pronounce it ‘about,’ not ‘a-boot.’
If your'e really Canadian, you most likely say something approximating 'a-boat', but that's not completely phonetically accurate.
It's called Canadian raising, and though we Americans make fun of it, it's real anyway.
My Canadian brother-in-law does it, and I never make fun. No, not ever.
For the life of me, I simply cannot imagine the appeal of sitting around with a bunch of naked dudes, or sharing a bath with them (esp. when many of them are likely to be old, fat, etc.). The thought of it makes me ill.
100% of the water you drink used to be dinosaur pee.
Yes, but does this really apply across Canada? Canada is a huge country spanning many time zones, from British Columbia (including Victoria island) and Yukon in the west, all the way to Newfoundland in the east. It's wider than the continental US.
I've only been to Canada a few times, to Ontario and BC and Yukon, but I find it hard to believe that this phenomenon you cite exists all across the country. I don't remember anyone talking like that in BC. And also, that accent reminds me a lot of how people talk in Minnesota, which is in the US. On top of all that, there's a bunch of people in Quebec who speak French, not English.
And don't forget, after that water evaporates, and then falls back to the Earth as rain, and then is collected and purified and used in the public water system for you to drink, it still contains the essence of that person's urine....
"Everybody pees in the pool." Michael Phelps
I just keep thinking of the South Park episode. XD
3 Dead Trolls. I like 'Every Os Sucks'. It's a shame what happened to Joe.
You'd much rather sit in a bath with thin, muscular young men? Tell us more.
No, I'd rather sit in a bath by myself at home, or with my girlfriend.
Though if I absolutely must share a public bath with a bunch of naked people, a bunch of beautiful naked women (and no men) would be tolerable I suppose.
That's the first thing I thought, too. I figure people are more likely to spill their drinks in the Jacuzzi, and they'll be more concentrated in the smaller volume, too.
-- "This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."
If you two continue on this trajectory you'll both turn into Howard Hughes.
If the price to pay for becoming immensely wealthy is to keep your piss in bottles and swim in a pool of handsanitizer twice a day, sign me up.
lucm, indeed.
Why? You don't generally go to a public bath with the purpose of staring at other dudes' junk. And even if you do, those same guys might be on the beach tomorrow and other than a small part in the middle of their body you get to see the exact same scenery if that's what you want to look at. Or changing in the locker room at the local swimming pool. Or anywhere else that its common to see guys in little or no clothing.
I mean I don't see the point of going to a public bath when I have a perfectly good shower at home, but its not because I'm worried about seeing a few dongs (I've got the internet after all.. its not like you can avoid those.) For me, its purely a question of "why bother?" And well, doubly so given that I don't live in a place where public baths really exist (and if there are any, they wouldn't exactly announce themselves given the negative perception of well.. a bunch of naked dudes hanging out together.)
You don't generally go to a public bath with the purpose of staring at other dudes' junk
No, but if you're surrounded by them you can't not see it.
And even if you do, those same guys might be on the beach tomorrow and other than a small part in the middle of their body you get to see the exact same scenery
I don't know about you, but I don't go to highly crowded beaches. When I do go to a beach, I find a spot that's not too close to other people. A public bath is far, far more crowded than just about any beach I've ever seen. Beaches are outdoors; public baths are not, so naturally there isn't going to be as much room in them.
Or anywhere else that its common to see guys in little or no clothing.
Like where? I do my best to avoid crowded locker rooms. I'd honestly be perfectly happy if I could just have my own indoor pool and exercise room and never set foot in a men's locker room again. I find them completely disgusting.
I mean I don't see the point of going to a public bath when I have a perfectly good shower at home
Yeah, I agree about this, I was just commenting on the OP's comment about Japanese public baths. I have honestly no idea why people would go to such a thing. But it's not just them; European or European-style saunas are the same way. Yuk.
they wouldn't exactly announce themselves given the negative perception of well.. a bunch of naked dudes hanging out together.
See, this is exactly my point. Why would a bunch of supposedly-straight dudes want to get naked and hang out together? It boggles my mind. I don't even care much for hanging out with other men when we're all fully clothed.
Their method should lead to a reasonably accurate result. They started with the average concentration of the sweetener in the urine of Canadians; people who consume lots of ACE will have more, people who avoid it will have less. (Hardly anybody will reach zero because the stuff is now showing up in the water supply.) The math could be off if the population of swimmers at those pools is not a representative sample of the Canadian population, if ACE is excreted in sweat, if significant amounts are coming from the bodies of swimmers (food or drinks still on the lips or spilled elsewhere), or if soft drinks are getting spilled into the pool.