Since we were kids we’ve been told all sorts of stories about why we shouldn’t pee in the pool. Mostly because it’s gross, but we’re also scared off about stories about dyes that will stain our costumes and shame us as the culprit.
But here’s the thing… lots of people do it. Hell, even Olympic swimmers have admitted to doing it.
US swimmer Ryan Lochte said before the 2012 London Olympics: “I think there’s just something about getting into chlorine water that you just automatically go.”
Teammate Michael Phelps agreed: “I think everybody pees in the pool. Chlorine kills it, so it’s not bad.”
But have you ever wondered exactly how much pee is in a pool?
Well, wonder no more. According to The Guardian, scientists have done a study on it. They measured the concentration of an artificial sweetener, acesulfame potassium (ACE), that passes through the body unaltered, in pools.
Scientists tracked the levels of this sweetener in two public pools in Canada over a three week period and found that there was 75 litres of urine in a large pool of about 830,000 litres – about the third of a size of an Olympic pool).
There was also about 30 litres of urine in a second pool which was about half the size of the first one.
The study also assessed jacuzzis and the findings here were totally gross – about three times more than that of the swimming pools.
TOP IMAGE: By tano_d’ere via Flickr under Creative Commons