Chlorine Is Not Why You Get Red Eyes After A Swim, It's Something Far More Disgusting
Yucks.
By John Lim
You just finished a nice long swim in the pool and you get bloodshot eyes, but before you start putting the blame on chlorine. Here's something you should know...
Contrary to popular belief, it's not chlorine itself that reddens your eyes. It's the chemical reaction when chlorine reacts with PEE.
According to a report by Healthy Swimming Program, an initiative started by CDC (Centres For Disease Control and Prevention) - chemical mixtures are formed when chlorine is mixed up with urine and sweat
Chlorine binds with all the things it’s trying to kill from your bodies, and it forms these chemical irritants. That’s what’s stinging your eyes. It’s the chlorine binding to the urine and the sweat.
jezebel.com
This mixture is called chloramine, and Beach noted that it’s also the reason you get a cough around swimming pools, since its chloramine that irritates the lungs. Some types of chloramine are used as drinking water disinfectants, but the type that develops after someone crop-dusts a pool with their ball sweat is different.
qz.com
Aside from urine and sweat - things like make up, natural oils, personal care products and yes, even fecal matter can all help form chloramine
Which is why you should always SHOWER before dipping into the pool.
Here's another fun fact about chlorine - it's not supposed to smell. In fact, a well-chlorinated pool should have no odour at all. If the pool you're planning to dive in smells - it's a sign that it needs some cleaning.
The second cause for worry is the chloramines are what's making that pool smell like, well, a pool. "A good healthy pool does not smell," says Hlavsa, despite what most of us would like to believe. That smell we often attribute to a clean pool is actually the chloramines, which are also responsible for making your eyes red when you swim. The irritants are also thought to trigger asthma attacks and may even lead to some skin irritation, she says.
Before you think that there's some sort of mechanism that'll prevent people from peeing in the pool - there isn't and that urine indicator dye doesn't exist
Although a surprising 52 percent of people believe pools can have dye in it that will show when people pee in the pool, urine indicator dye does not exist and is chemically nearly impossible to produce.
clearcomfort.com
So to make our pools a safer and healthier environment - make sure you shower before dipping in and try not peeing in the pool for once. Can do?
