# Peeing in the pool **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2023, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079 "2023-06-25T12:39:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/21 "2023-06-26T05:51:23Z")
Speaking of creatures… Does anyone remember this poster? I remember seeing it at a mall in southern California when it came out. > **[Creature from black lagoon Who peed in the pool? Vint Poster orig 1976 MONSTER...](https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/creature-black-lagoon-peed-pool-vint-441900687)** > > ORIGINAL The CREATURE from the black lagoon, Who peed in the Pool? poster 1976 in NOS unused condition, but with small creases and browning from storage . RARE in this condition. Never used. These wer ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/22 "2023-06-26T07:43:33Z")
I think when it comes to peeing in the pool, the thought of it is way more repulsive than the act. ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/23 "2023-06-26T10:14:43Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > eat a pound of cooked beetroot Good idea. A quart of borscht should do the trick. Red urine should quickly dissipate, I’d imagine. It’s curious how folks are saying things like “I wouldn’t do it but it’s probably harmless.” If so, why not do it? I behaved myself for years, decades even, but have only recently wondered “What’s the harm?” Ducks, for example, swim around in it sometimes, and probably shit and piss when they’re here, but I cheerfully swim after seeing ducks in my pool. So is my pee more, or less, vile than the ducks’ droppings? Chlorine is powerful stuff. We swim amid whale droppings, don’t we? ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/24 "2023-06-26T11:42:14Z")
McDonnell-Douglas, since you asked. Reminds me of our 3-year-old on the beach last year (toilet trained) - he said he needed to pee, we said “go in the sea” - so he went down the water’s edge, dropped his shorts and went for it 🙂. Not quite what we had in mind, but no harm done. > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > My answer to the OP is that I probably wouldn’t do it, but I have no hesitation peeing in the ocean. Same here - although I have peed in a pool that only I was using at the time, and to be honest I think the concentration of any contaminants by doing so is virtually homeopathic levels, so not really a concern even if everyone in a public pool is doing it. Hell, I’ve peed in a bath without getting out immediately, though I don’t make a habit of it. > [@slicedalone](#): > > We swim amid whale droppings, don’t we? It may have been on this board that I first saw this: there is a ratio of dead-human-body-to-water below which we consider it acceptable to swim in said water. The ocean undoubtedly contains many dead human bodies, and we swim in it; but one dead human body in a swimming pool makes the ratio too high (for most people). ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/25 "2023-06-26T12:24:45Z")
Leave it to Adam Sandler and his gang to put this in one of his movies… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-65-nxQyH6Q/hqdefault.jpg "Grown Ups clip 'Blue Urine' - At UK & Ireland Cinemas now!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-65-nxQyH6Q) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/26 "2023-06-26T14:58:01Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > > [@slicedalone](#): > > > > removing myself from the pool, putting on a robe, going to the bathroom, and then reimmersing myself in the pool, > > My gf makes fun of me because I’ll leave the ocean/sea, go to the men’s bathroom and pee, then return to the ocean/sea. You’re just depriving the sea critters of valuable nutrients and minerals. No benefit to them. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/27 "2023-06-26T15:16:33Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > You’re just depriving the sea critters of valuable nutrients and minerals. Not really. The urinal I pee into drains into the sea! ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/28 "2023-06-26T15:43:51Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > My gf makes fun of me because I’ll leave the ocean/sea, go to the men’s bathroom and pee, then return to the ocean/sea. That isn’t necessarily grounds for revocation of your Mancard but I’m pretty sure we have to bend a corner. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/29 "2023-06-26T16:03:36Z")
I used to eat Twizzlers’s black licorice in fair quantities, and the first time I saw green poop I almost called my doctor, thinking there was something wrong. ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/30 "2023-06-26T17:05:19Z")
Just occurred to me that “peeing in the pool” could be sung to the tune of “Dancing in the Dark.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/31 "2023-06-26T18:11:31Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > I used to eat Twizzlers’s black licorice in fair quantities, and the first time I saw green poop I almost called my doctor, thinking there was something wrong. I’d forgotten about that cool feature of really good Black licorice. Of which Twizzlers totally wasn’t, but American Licorice Company’s product certainly was. Eat enough and you get a really interesting shade of bilious green semi-soft poop My favorite way to eat them was to open the package & leave it on the shelf for a week or 3 until they’d gotten pretty darn stiff, but not yet brittle. Each bite would stretch and then snap off. Much better than the gooey sticky texture when you first open the package. I’m just now appalled to learn from their corporate website that they no longer have the courage to have black licorice by that name. It’s all under the trade style “Red Vines”; even the black stuff. The inmates have totally taken over their asylum. [https://americanlicorice.com/en](https://americanlicorice.com/en) Gaah! Another verity of my youth mostly consigned to the dustbin of history. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/32 "2023-06-26T18:17:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And certain purple food dyes (also found in black dye) will turn your poop green. Indeed. I used to work for Quaker Oats, and our customer service reps would regularly get panicked calls from parents of young children, who had enjoyed a breakfast of one of our cereals such as “[Oops! All Berries Cap’n Crunch](https://www.capncrunch.com/sites/capncrunch.com/files/2021-03/oops-all-berries.png)” or “[Sea Adventures Quaker Instant Oatmeal](https://preview.redd.it/otuutit3vf541.png?auto=webp&s=27ab958adc44fc4aef01dc6d44ffdb57d9d57a3b),” both of which used blue or purple food dyes, and which had yielded green poop. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/33 "2023-06-26T20:02:24Z")
Short article length treatment of the peeing in pool controversy, and a short link to a video, is here: [https://www.vox.com/2018/8/27/17770810/peeing-in-swimming-pools-because-chlorine](https://www.vox.com/2018/8/27/17770810/peeing-in-swimming-pools-because-chlorine) 19% of the public has admitted to peeing in the pool at least once. (Ew). As stated upthread, urine breaks down chlorine and creates other chemicals with various problems. IFL link: > **[A Grim Amount Of People Pee In The Pool – Here's Why You Shouldn't](https://www.iflscience.com/a-grim-amount-of-people-pee-in-the-pool-heres-why-you-shouldnt-63515)** > > A Grim Amount Of People Pee In The Pool – Here's Why You Shouldn't > " The [CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/swimmers/rwi/chemical-irritants.html)explains that urinating in a pool leaves less chlorine available to kill germs that could actually make you sick. Furthermore, uric acid in urine [can interact](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es405402r)with chlorine in the water, potentially generating hazardous airborne chemicals. One of these byproducts is cyanogen chloride, a toxic compound that’s literally used as a [chemical weapon](https://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention/annexes/annex-chemicals/schedule-3) in warfare. The amounts of these chemicals produced in a pool are not going to kill you, but it’s certainly enough to give you red and stinging eyes." Similarly, I understand that rinsing before going in the pool also produces less chemical interactions with chlorine. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/34 "2023-06-26T20:08:18Z")
Or “Singing in the Rain”. Both start with “ **I** ’m”. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/35 "2023-06-26T20:42:36Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > 19% of the public has admitted to peeing in the pool at least once. (Ew). And 81% of the people either lied or don’t go into the pool, probably for fear of the pee. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/36 "2023-06-26T21:14:36Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > I estimate the quantity of urine as about 1 or 2 ounces every week or so. I don’t think anyone has commented on this point. Is this like just a little urine leaking out or are you peeing peeing? If you are emptying your bladder, you might want to talk to your doc. Or drink more water. ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/37 "2023-06-26T21:27:25Z")
What, do you fill up a two-gallon jug every time you go? ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/38 "2023-06-26T22:12:53Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > One of these byproducts is cyanogen chloride, a toxic compound that’s literally used as a [chemical weapon](https://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention/annexes/annex-chemicals/schedule-3) in warfare. Oh, god. That means when I was in 7th grade, doing a mandatory week of swim class in PE, it was not the case that they just kept adding large amounts of chlorine every day. It was increasing amounts of pee in the pool. I always swim with my eyes open. By the end of the week, my eyes were red, swollen, painful, and watering constantly. I literally couldn’t keep them open for more than a second or two for the test I had in my next class. I am not usually grossed out by the fact that people pee in pools, but that must have been extreme. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/39 "2023-06-26T23:17:30Z")
Excessive chlorination of pee-free water also produces red stinging eyes. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079/40 "2023-06-27T11:14:51Z")
My gf has been seriously considering a small/tiny in ground pool (a soaking or plunge pool) with an adjacent cocktail area for our yard. _Not_ a hot tub. The primary negative for me is that if anyone other than the two of us ever used it, I’d never go in again. And it would be awkward to entertain and not offer. We spend two weeks in the Caribbean each winter. The last time I went in the sea above my knees was ~8 years ago (I helped a beach-bar owner with placing mooring setups). I love being on the beach and I enjoy boating. My gf swims, I lounge. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peeing-in-the-pool/986079.md?page=3)