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Comment on I'll share a troubling fact with you if you share one with me

Here’s a fun one

You know how you go to the public pool and you smell the chlorine keeping the water clean? That’s not chlorine you’re smelling.

Chlorine is a great sanitizer but when dissolved in water it has almost no smell. However, chlorine binds to organic substances like dead skin cells and especially strongly to urea (aka pee), forming chloramine. Chloramine has significantly less sanitizing capability than chlorine, but it has a very strong chloriney smell.

You can get rid of chloramine by ‘shocking’ the pool- adding an oxidizer or increasing the chlorine level very high to what’s called breakpoint chlorination. Shock powder is expensive though so it’s not always used as often as it should be.

So when you go to the public pool and you get that strong chlorine smell, all that means is either the pool water is dirty and hasn’t been shocked in a while, or someone peed in the pool recently.

Enjoy your swim!

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Maalus@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You didn’t mention the important part - sweat does that too. So it might not be pee, just sweaty people getting washed off. Which is better, to be fair.

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IMNOTCRAZYINSTITUTION@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
nah no way because my town heavily chlorinates the tap water and that shit reeks like a swimming pool… or is someone pissing in the tap???

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- SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The chlorine does its job, and whatever shit it kills becomes chloramine. Chlorine does have a smaller smell of its own so maybe they just put a shit ton of it in also.
  
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- Zahtu@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Your Tap water being dirty is Not an Option? When they chlorine it, there’s certainly a need to get it Clean from e.g. the Pipes or other contaminants
  
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- BobTheDestroyer@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Chloramines are disinfectants used to treat drinking water. Chloramines are most commonly formed when ammonia is added to chlorine to treat drinking water.
  
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pseudonym@monyet.cc ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
🤢🤮 oh god why did I read this

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scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If you pay attention at the beach you will totally notice people wading in to take a piss and then wading back out of the water. I know the ocean is big and all but there’s something… uncivilized about it.

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- vext01@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  What do you think all the fishes do when they need a crap?
  
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FeeshyFish@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
My wife was so mad at me when I explained this to her. She said the chlorine smell would give her nostalgia and I ruined it.

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Tattorack@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
This is the reason why I don’t want to go to pools anymore.

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clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Fun video from Mark Rober about the topic. How to measure how much pee is in your pool

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