Not only is it disgusting, but urine in pool water also fosters the formation of harmful chemicals. As soon as body oils meet sweat, chlorine, and urine, DBP's (disinfection byproducts) start to arise. Organic matter from our bodies mixing with chlorine allows these DBP's to form and harm our health.
While this may seem merely unappealing, a 2014 study suggested that urine can actually combine with the chlorine disinfectant in swimming pool water to make potentially harmful chemicals. The researchers recommend that all swimmers avoid urinating in swimming pools to prevent these chemicals from forming.
Cyanogen chloride forms when chlorine from the pool reacts with nitrogen in urine. It acts like tear gas, roughing up the eyes, nose and lungs, and it's classified as an agent of chemical warfare. Predictably, the study quickly resulted in headlines like “Why peeing in the pool is chemical warfare.”
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are another culprit of swimming pool season. A UTI occurs when bacteria travels up the urethra and travels through the urine into the bladder. The offending bacteria can come from icky pool water, not showering after, or from sitting around in a damp bathing suit.
There is currently no such urine indicator dye that exists. "Chlorine and other disinfectants are added to a swimming pool to destroy germs. Peeing in a pool depletes chlorine and actually produces an irritant that makes people's eyes turn red," said Michele Hlavsa, chief of the CDC's Healthy Swimming Program.
And yes, about 20 gallons of pee sounds gross — especially if you picture it as 20 milk jugs lined up in a row. But in a 220,000-gallon pool, that's only 0.01 percent of the total liquid in the pool — in other words, a drop in the bucket.
Chlorine reacts with urine to form a host of potentially toxic compounds called disinfection byproducts. These can include anything from the chloramines that give well-used pools the aforementioned odor, to cyanogen chloride, which is classified as a chemical warfare agent.
It's unlikely that your own urine could cause an infection even if bacteria in the urine made their way into your body through a cut or other wound on your legs or feet.
Pool chemicals kill most germs within minutes, but some live for days. Chemicals also break down pee, poop, sweat, dirt, and other gunk from swimmers' bodies.
Depending on your body type, allowing yourself to urinate while standing in the running water could be going against your body's methods for holding it when you need to. "From a pelvic floor perspective, the position for peeing in the shower is not conducive to pelvic floor relaxation," Jeffrey-Thomas told Buzzfeed.
Urine is sterile where it is produced in the kidney, but once it has left the body, it is usually contaminated. It is not toxic per se.
Urine is made up of water and waste products that are intended to be eliminated from the body. Ingesting urine re-introduce these waste products back into the body, putting stress on the kidneys and may ultimately lead to dehydration or possible kidney damage.
Normal urine color ranges from pale yellow to deep amber — the result of a pigment called urochrome and how diluted or concentrated the urine is. Pigments and other compounds in certain foods and medications can change your urine color. Beets, berries and fava beans are among the foods most likely to affect the color.
Peeing in the ocean is totally fine, but don't pee in protected areas like reefs or smaller bodies of water, especially swimming pools.
Uric acid from human urine mixes with chlorine to create the cyanogen chloride (CNCI) and trichloramine (NCl3). CNCI is a toxic compound that can harm organs like the lungs, heart, and central nervous system.
Above a pH of 6, chromium trioxide is yellow, but orange red crystals form when the pH falls below 6. Normally, the urine pH varies from 4 to 8. We postulate, that physiological changes in urine pH in combination with chromate which was added to the urine samples, produced the 'Rainbow urine' in our patient.
Dark urine is most commonly due to dehydration. However, it may be an indicator that excess, unusual, or potentially dangerous waste products are circulating in the body. For example, dark brown urine may indicate liver disease due to the presence of bile in the urine.
The taste of urine varies from watery to slightly biter, sour and even sugary. Normal urine is usually salty and somehow bitter. A sweet tasting urine may be the first sign we have of diabetes. Jaundice makes urine taste as bitter as gall.
Boil the urine and collect the steam on glass or plastic. The best way is to have two bottles and a long stretch of plastic tubing between them. Putting urine in one bottle and boiling it will push the steam along the tube until it condenses into drinkable water.
In the case of large amounts of urine, your lungs could feel like they are burning. Inhalation of large quantities of ammonia causes immediate burning of the throat, respiratory tract and nose. As a person is exposed to larger or constant quantities of ammonia, he or she may start to feel lightheaded and faint.
The bottom line is that peeing in the shower is unlikely to harm you. So whether it's part of your water-saving efforts or you can't stop the flow sometimes, it's pretty much fine to pee in the shower. Just make sure you are using your own shower.
collected answers from 1,500 men aged 20 to 60 and found that a total of 60.9 percent of men prefer to sit. The survey covered only postures for urinating at sit-down toilets and did not consider situations where urinals are also available.
So yes, it is perfectly fine to sit, if for no other reason than one is less likely to cause a mess.
“A lot of guys sit to pee if they can't fully evacuate their bladder. When you sit down, you can use your abdominal muscles more, and you get your last few squirts out and feel like you've emptied better.” In fact, this is something that helps Mills diagnose patients who might have problems peeing.