This would have been the last thing on my mind upon seeing the condition of the swimming pools here. They look 'very' clean to me, but perhaps chemically they are not. I cannot say from experience, since I don't know how to swism (yet) but others surely would be able to say whether this idea is a bit too far fetched or not ...
News from Swiss info
Arggggggh never swimming in the outdoor pool again, i was in the badi yesterday and took the next door neighbours daughter with us (12yrs old) and she told me all her friends pee in the water
7000 people peeing in the water for 24 hours
The Rhein swim seems a bit more appealing now!
If your eyes sting, it's pee in the water. It reacts with the chlorine. If your eyes don't sting, either they're not using chlorine (very bad) or the pool is clean (very good).
Thats why I avoid pools in general!
unless it's my own pool and pee
it hurts to read the heading, dirty they are not, just full of pee.grrrr
not an impedement to the health though, as urin is normally without germs. It is a sort of cure to bathe in urin I read somewhere, heals all sorts of skin disease
dont take me too seriously please
I generally prefer lakes and the seasides to those artificial swimming pools. But when the water is still icy in the lake, i love to go to places like the one of Schwamendingen where the water is always acceptable. I however am aware of the fact that hotel swimming pools often have too much of chemical things in it, just as the Mövenpick in Cairo (Cairo Airport) where the use of their pool caused some problems, which without problems got overcome in Muscat/Oman on the beach facing the Indian Ocean.
I was in New Delhi a few years ago. a girl i met in the Airport had found a hotel in the city centre, and she said they had a sign in the reception "Sorry, the pool is closed by order of the health authorities"
I am more surpriced, they were honest, than that it happened.
Doc.
Bah, if the chlorine level is right pretty much the only thing that can make you sick is diarrhea ... and if you want to swim in 'clean, natural' water just think how many fish and other water creatures are eating, excreting, mating and dying in there ... with no health controls whatsoever!!
The main reason for stinging eyes in a Swimming pool is the pH level being wrong. At the chain of leisure centers I worked for the pools had to be checked every hour to ensure the pH was correct and adjusted if it was not.
Very true. If someone gets the runs in a pool everyone has to leave the water immediatley and the water cleaned. It takes a minimum of 6 backwashes & approx 16 hours to clean your average leisure pool. If cryptosporidium is suspected it cannot open again until cleared by the local health authority which can take 3 days (the rules in Scotland). This was my bosses biggest nightmare as it costs a fortune to put right.
When we're at the Badi, I always march my five year old off to the WC when it looks imminent that he needs to pee. I remind him regularly too as he forgets.
Once, he hadn't been for ages so I reminded him and asked him whether he needed to go and he looked sheepish.
"Did you pee in the pool?" I asked.
"Yes", he replied, but then added brightly, "But, don't worry, no one noticed!"
Normal urine is quite safe anyway and, in some survival techniques , is recommended for washing out a wound if there is no water. It's only when wee has been left in the air that the bacteria work on it and it begins to smell.
I find the swimming pools I use around Zurich to be clean and non-stingy to the eyes.
Before my son was out of nappies he used to use a swim nappy when in the pool but that didn't hold any wee back, it is just there to catch solids.
You are probably more at risk from those swimmers who surface after swimming a few laps then clear each nostril with an almighty blow through, straight into the pool. Colds and flu, anybody..?
Following up on those cheering for swimming in lakes etc., the only time I ever got ill following a swim (nasty ear / throat infection), was after a few lengths in the Pfäffikersee. I should have known at the time, as it was like swimming in warm, rather fetid soup. The big lakes, and the rivers are a much safer bet than the small dank pools.
As for baby / toddler widdle, any parent will tell you it's practically sterile, and cleans parquet / carpets better than any other product on the market.
On a more serious note, people who spend their whole life in deathly fear of germs are clearly not aware that the human body contains more bacterial cells than human cells, and without these bacterial buddies, we'd die in about 5 minutes. I have seen amazing high magnification videos of bacteria native to the human mouth launching themselves in a suicidal attack against an invading pathogen.
Cheers
Jim
Doesn't make me feel better. Rubbing your pee on a wound is one thing if it's a matter of life and death but drinking somebody else's pee just isn't on...I don't care how fresh it is.
Can't I even tempt you with ice and a slice?
Maybe I'll have a wee dram
horgen-badi käpfnach= ok. with urine in pool=burning eyes theory...pool is clean! the lifeguard there calls everybody down that has not showered before jumping in, so theyre taking much care about as far as i can tell...
Is it not possible to put some type of indicator in the water that changes colour on contact with fresh urine? A bit of public humiliation after being surrounded by a circle of brightly coloured water might put a few people off urinating in the pool in future???
A bit like being surrounded by a sudden rush of bubbles...