The human body is a wonderful machine, and just knowing what happens to it in a single minute is enough to confirm the complexity of its design, but that also means it can break easily, even when doing something as simple as entering a public pool. If you go to one of these pools and feel the smell of chlorine invading you, we recommend that you leave immediately. Why? First, previous visitors decided to urinate in the pool, and second, you could end up sick…
The Myth of Chlorine and Urine
Michael Phelps, a hybrid between dolphin and human with two million gold medals hanging around his neck, said back in August 2012 that “everyone pees in the pool”, something his colleague Ryan Lochte also admitted. The problem is that Phelps tried to minimize the fact by adding that “chlorine kills the urine, so it's not that bad”. Well... I'm sorry for this torpedo-living legend of swimming, but chlorine doesn't work that way.
When someone visits a public pool, the last thing they expect is the assault of a chemical smell, which most associate with “chlorine”. In reality, what we are smelling is… something worse.
What You're Actually Smelling
According to Michele Hlavsa, head of the “Healthy Swimming” program at the US CDC, a “clean” pool has no chemical smell, and if that smell exists, it's due to the presence of chloramines. Chloramines arise from the reaction between certain cleaning agents (with chlorine at the top of the list) and the organic material in the pool, a description that goes beyond urine. Sweat, natural body oils, hair, saliva, food remnants, and even fecal particles trigger the reaction. Chloramines cause irritation to the skin, eyes, and lungs, but that's not all: The more organic material in a pool, the less free chlorine is available, and that chlorine is responsible for killing viruses, bacteria, and parasites.
The Real Danger: Pathogens
There's more: The death of pathogens is not immediate. Both E. coli and Hepatitis A can be destroyed using chlorine in less than 20 minutes, but the parasite Cryptosporidium, which causes diarrheal cryptosporidiosis (with diarrhea lasting up to three weeks), resists more than ten days in chlorine-treated water. In short: If you are sick or have been in the last two weeks, don't jump into the pool, not even to escape a grenade (Spoiler: It's not a good idea). Before entering, always take a shower, and for heaven's sake, don't urinate in the pool. It's disgusting, you make others sick, and potentially yourself.
