Hey everybody, welcome back to explain back in five. If I can also take the questions you always wanted to ask and talk about them in a way that's easy to understand. We're a host, I'm Tim. And I'm Kevin.
So Kevin, remember we did an episode a while back on the bladder? Oh yes, we were asking why our adults woken up automatically when they need to pee, while young children wet the bed instead. Exactly. Well, that was an episode that generated a number of interesting questions from our listeners.
They wrote in and today we're going to explain one of the adjacent topics that people were asking about, and that is pee. Well, what's there to explain? Oh, well, there are so many good questions I've listened to. But let's start with this one.
Is pee poisonous to the point where you shouldn't be peeing in a swimming pool? Or is it OK? Classic, classic question. And in fact, this made some of the headlines, you know, when the US swimmer Ryan Lachte and Michael Phelps kind of admitted to peeing the pool.
I believe Lachte made a comment like, I think they're just something about getting into chlorine water. They just automatically go. And Michael Phelps agreed, you know, saying, I think everybody pees in the pool. He also said something about how chlorine kills it.
So it's not too bad. Mm. So let's explain this. Is it a problem?
Isn't urine sterile? Well, yes, urine is sterile. But there are compounds in urine like urea, ammonia, and creatinine that have been found to react with disinfectants to form rather odd byproducts that could lead to things like eye and respiratory irritation. You know, long-term exposure to these compounds has also been linked to asthma in professional swimmers and pool workers.
So if you can help it, it's much better not to pee in the pool. OK, well, that's a good explanation. How about in a sea? There are millions or billions of creatures in the ocean.
I don't even know how many. And they will pee in there. So if it's a problem, how do they all not get sick from inhaling each other's urine? Oh, so the first reason for this is something called the nitrogen cycle.
One of the main purposes of urination is to get rid of excess nitrogen-based chemicals like we described above. And there is a well-established nitrogen cycle in which various bacteria and other organisms in the sea convert ammonia to gaseous, di nitrogen, basically, and two, which is relatively harmless. And you remember all that from our nitrogen episode? Oh, of course I do.
The nitrogen cycle, yes. The second reason is also basically because of dilution. You know, the ocean is really, really big. It's about 1.35 billion cubic kilometers, in fact.
And so in terms of fish, scientists have estimated not millions or billions. Actually, the estimate is something like 3.5 trillion fish in the sea. Even at this level, this gives each fish about 300,000 cubic meters to pee in. And that's like 100 Olympic swimming pools, basically, for each fish.
OK, so wasn't there a study done recently or a few years back to see how much pea was contained in swimming pools? That's right. In Canada, scientists tracked the levels of a sweetener linked to urine to figure out how much pea was in two public pools measured over a three-week period. They calculated that swimmers had released about 75 liters of urine into the pool during the sign.
Wow, that sounds like a lot of pee. Oh, yes, yes, it is a lot. To use some analogies, 75 liters is like 200 cans of coke. But also, just like how the ocean dilution we talked about, you have to put it into context.
The pool was about 830,000 liters, which is one-third the size of Olympic pool. So even at that level, it's still a drop in the bucket. OK, so it's proof that people do pee in swimming pools. But why don't they get caught doing it?
What about this urine indicator dye that supposedly they put into swimming pools? Oh, well, that doesn't exist. The urine indicator dye is a mythical substance that is supposed to be able to react with urine to form a colored cloud in a swimming pool or a hot tub, thus indicating the location of people who are urine while they're in the water. Yes, that is what I've heard.
Yeah, they tell kids about it, so they don't pee in the pools. Actually, there's even a official 2015 report from the National Swimming Pool Foundation, which called this urine indicator dye, quote, the most common pool myth of all time. And even funnier, the report said that nearly half of American surveyed by researchers believe that this mythical dye existed. Well, now we know the truth.
Thanks Kevin. Did you learn something new? If you did, send us an email, we are at your life5.com at gmail.com. We love hearing from you, just as we did with a few listeners from our bladder episode.
And as always, thank you to the community at rsl.sll.5. We will see you all next week.