You know those sweeteners in food we consume? Well, the sweetener called acesulfame potassium (also called Ace-K) is found pretty much in many sweetened foods. And we pee this stuff out, since it’s found in most everyone’s urine.
Therefore, scientist have found a way to measure how much we pee in the pool water!
Acesulfame potassium, when consumed, goes right through your system to your urine, and it doesn’t break down easily if you pee it out in pool water.
So scientists can calculate how much pee are in pools people use by measuring acesulfame potassium in pool water.
Researchers from the University of Alberta, in Canada recently published these findings in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
According to the researchers, in a commercial pool about 200,000-gallon in size, there can be up to 20 gallons of urine. In residential pools, they estimate there can be about 2 gallons of pee.
Pee in Pool Water is Nasty and a Health Issue
Pee in pool water is pretty gross, and it can be a health issue.
The chlorine in the water can react with urine to form toxic compounds called disinfection byproducts. Some of these compounds can even cause cancer.
Actually, that sharp chlorine smell in pool water is just not the chlorine. It’s a mixture of these compounds and other chemicals combined with body urine, sweat and oils. It really is nasty!
Once urine gets into pool water, the only way to really clear it out is to replace all the water. The problem is, most pools can go for months or years before the water is changed.
How to stop pee from getting into pool water? Well, just tell people to stop peeing in the pool, but good luck with that.
But don’t fret. Swimming is really a healthy activity, and the benefits you gain are worth it, even if you have to swim around in some pee.
Journal Reference:
Lindsay K. Jmaiff Blackstock, Wei Wang, Sai Vemula, Benjamin T. Jaeger, and Xing-Fang Li. Sweetened Swimming Pools and Hot Tubs. Environmental Science & Technology Letters. 2017. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.estlett.7b00043.
