Six Unhygienic Summer Health Threats

[steven johnson]

ABC News posted a grossout story to feed the paranoia of germophobes.

Enjoy the trip down gastroenteritis lane.

--Peeing In Pools, or Worse
--Undercooked Meat
--Sand, Soil and Germs Outdoors
--Freshwater Parasites
--Outdoor Eating
--Leaving Cold Food Out

Unclean pool water accounted for 4,500 recreational water illnesses (RWIs) between 2005-2006, according to the CDC.

The "danger zone" in which bacteria find it easy to grow, given enough food and moisture, is between 40 and 140 degrees. The longest stretch that food should be left above 40 degrees is about two hours.




Ew! 6 Unhygienic Summer Health Threats

[Duer 157099]

1. Peeing in pools is at the top of the list?

Pee is sterile, how could any germophobe honestly worry about it?

:shrug:

[rwheeler31]

3. Was this written in 1945?

[Warpy]

5. Pee provides a great medium to grow bacteria

and it's a hazard in unfiltered, unchlorinated kiddie pools.

Empty that thing out daily, willya? Ew.

While it's impolite to pee in a chlorinated pool, it's not dangerous because chlorine kills any bugs that would see that urea dinner as a temptation.

(If you don't think pee grows bugs, leave a jar of it outside for a couple of days then open it and take a BIG SNIFF)

[Duer 157099]

6. Yeah, but so is any salty solution at pH 7

Once it gets diluted in a pool, especially one with chlorine, not a danger at all.

[Warpy]

8. Salt isn't a growth medium

Urea is.

[Duer 157099]

9. Bacteria will grow in saline solution.

That's why they have to add a preservative such as thimerosol.

Make up a batch of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphate_buffered_saline

and keep it in an open container on your counter. You'll see stuff growing pretty soon.

[Warpy]

13. That's not saline solution.

[Duer 157099]

14. Is too

:popcorn:

:)

[ElboRuum]

7. Germophobia...

A phobia is an irrational fear. The key word is irrational.

[uppityperson]

15. Urine is sterile only until you pee.

Inside the body, unless you have a urinary tract infection, urine is sterile. It picks up bacteria on the way out of the body and is no longer sterile.

[Duer 157099]

16. Yeah, true. But presumably the outside of the body

is also in the water in the pool.

[question everything]

18. Pee is sterile?

Try to put a drop on a Petri Dish, you will be surprised what grows there.

[dropkickpa]

22. Pee is not sterile

Sorry. Can you guarantee that everyone peeing in the pool is free from infection?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I wonder how I've lived so long.

All those years of unhygienic picnics, eating rare hamburgers and potato salad that had been sitting outside, playing in dirt and sand, swimming in lakes full of germs ... maybe even swimming in pools somebody had peed in. I really didn't want to know those things. Maybe I should be retroactively dead?

[NYC_SKP]

12. We've built up resistance.

Germophobes avoid contact so much that they are, in fact, more susceptible to infections!

viva la vida natural!

[question everything]

20. A lot happened since most of us where youngests

playing in the dirt and peeing in the pool.

For one, many bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics, are more virulent and have displaced the less virulent ones. We have also encountered new strains of bacteria and viruses - like the H1N1 - that our bodies have not met before.

[Arctic Dave]

4. I did all those within the last week. OH NOES, IZ GONNA DIE!1!

[Orrex]

10. Check again, quick!

Maybe you're dead already!!!1!

[Arctic Dave]

11. It's been over three days, maybe I've been resurrected just to post on DU.

I am Cheesus do as I command.

[mizz pibb]

17. Oh, bullocks! This is a bunch of OCD banana oil! n/t

[question everything]

19. This is why we no longer use a pool, or a sauna at the gym

[Mamacrat]

21. Peeing in pool

I just read an article on CNN.com a few days ago about this issue: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/22/pools.urinate.hygiene/index.html It notes that the urine interacts with the chlorine to cause chloramines, which causes eye redness/irritation, respiratory irritations and a strong odor in the pool. I'd actually just noticed at the indoor pool where I took my son for his swimming lesson that it had a really strong chemical odor and wondered after I read this article if it was from all the children having lessons urinating in the pool. He does wear goggles, though.

And, just FYI: I read an article in one of the magazines in my pulmonologist's office that children who take swimming lessons in the first few years of life are more likely to have respiratory problems later in life.