Are you, for any reason wondering if urine indeed changes color in a swimming pool? Is it true or not? I will reveal the truth in this article and detail the necessary information surrounding it. Please stick with me.
Table of Contents
Does Urine Change Color in Swimming Pool?
You might have heard that urine may be able to change color inside a swimming pool. This is just a myth that is not true.
But, can be there some things that go on if we urinate in a swimming pool that we don’t know of? Let us get into that too.
What Happens When You Urinate in a Swimming Pool?
You can be sure that a pool will always contain urine, fecal matter, and sweat most time. Our focus is on urine in the swimming pool.
If you are truthful, you have at one time, or the other urinated in a swimming pool before. Funnily enough, it might be more than once. It would probably be correct to say that most people who use the swimming pool do that. Hearing this fact that I am about to state might give you a bit of guilt for all those times you urinated in the swimming pool.
A new study shows that a toxic chemical called cyanogens chloride is formed when you urinate in a swimming pool. This harmful chemical is formed when the chlorine found in the swimming pool reacts with nitrogen, a constituent of urine. This chemical acts like tear gas. I don’t know if you have had any experience with tear gas. It makes you shed tears; it affects your eyes, nose, and lungs. This is also referred to as an agent of chemical warfare.
Now, looking from this toxic chemical’s perspective, does this mean that there is a dangerous effect to urinating when in the swimming pool? How bad is urinating in the swimming pool? Do you need to worry about it?
Experiment
An experiment was conducted in a lab; the researcher added uric acid with chlorine. The worst case got them discovering about 30 mg per liter or parts per billion of cyanogens chloride. The WHO’s guideline of maximum cyanogens concentration in drinking water is 70 parts per billion. So, it is well below that.
You must know that this was an experiment with the worst-case scenario, and not even in a realistic swimming pool environment, you understand? Casey Johnston carried out another experiment to discover how much urine in an Olympic-sized swimming pool would cause convulsion, coma, and death. Her result was 2500 parts per billion.
You can be sure that it will take so much urine to make a swimming pool toxic to use, to lead to coma or death. The question now is, can small amounts of urine in a swimming pool affect one?
Since there is no assurance, it is safe to avoid urinating in swimming pools. The mixture of urine and chlorine can also produce trichloramine (NCl3). This compound is a lung irritant. There is still research to confirm if this is linked to increased asthma rates in children.
If you are an asthma patient or a regular swimmer, you are at risk of respiratory problems. This is due to the pool chemicals, and this is not about the urine that might or might not be in the swimming pool. This is not for you if you don’t swim that often and don’t have any health issues. It is not safe to drink water from a swimming pool because of different things inside the swimming pool water.
Is There a Detector for Urine in Swimming Pool?
There has been a myth that there is a urine detector that can help discover when one urinates in a swimming pool. You are wondering if there is a detector like that.
It is a myth that a chemical is used in swimming pools, and if anyone urinates, there will be a color change.
I am informing you that it is just a myth; it is not valid. No chemical can cause color change when you urinate in a swimming pool.
Yes, some dyes can cloud or produce a color when they react with the urine. But in a situation where there can be other compounds, the dyes can produce false results. This is just to let you know that there is no detector for urine in a swimming pool.
Final Thoughts
Can or does urine change color in a swimming pool? You have answers; it is a “no.” Any detector to help with that as heard? No, there is nothing like a urine detector that will show or change color in a swimming pool when someone urinates
