Peeing in the pool.

Just watched a piece on Good Morning America on urine in public swimming pools. The "reporter", didn't catch his name, decided to go around taking samples of pool water in various places and sending them off to a lab for testing. "Certified" testing he crowed.
The first pool he reported was a kidde pool, and no surprise, tested positive for urea, a marker for urine in the water. The next one was a public pool, same result, positive. Then, he revealed the results from a prominent hotel pool, which he inferred was used by predominantly adults, with the same results, positive.
Next, he tested a jacuzzi, apparently adults only. Again, positive.
He then launched into poll that showed 64% of adults admitted to peeing while swimming in pools.
First, I have a problem with the poll. How was tbe question posed? Because he made it sound like 64% of adults pee in the pool regularly. If the question was; "Have you ever peed in a pool in your lifetime?" the result he inferred would be very misleading. A subtle form of fearmongering.
But my biggest problem was the results he gave for the presence of urea in all the pools tested, by a certified testing lab. In none of them did he give any actual amounts, as in parts per million, to reference which ones were worse than others.
He even conferred with some guy in a labcoat, asking him if chlorine killed the urine. The labcoat guy said it didn't and that it combines with urea and produces two other chemicals that are very discomforting. By now, I'm thinking I never want to swim in a pool again. What is his purpose here?
Of course, I would expect the ppm to be greater in the kidde pool, and act accordingly. Don't dunk my head and hit the showers right after.
But since he gave no indication of the ppm of any results, and they were tested in a lab, I thought that this was terribly misleading.
Fearmongering. As in inoculating us just before summer swimming season.
He couldn't come out a say; "Don't pee in the pool this summer". He had to doctor the results. Like we are all little kids. A kind of talking down to us.
I feel a bit insulted by this. And I've been noticing this same behavior with all the MSM.
To me, it's a subtle form of......wait for it; Yellow Journalism.

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earthling1's picture

As just an ordinary construction worker, not a journalist or intellectual, this behavior sticks out to me. Whether it is a decades long personal witnessing of changing behavior or it been happening all along, I'm not sure. Is this a dumbing down of America? Or do they simply believe we are that stupid.
Based on my recollections of the last election, I'm leaning towards the latter.
Thoughts?

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Alligator Ed's picture

@earthling1

Is this a dumbing down of America? Or do they simply believe we are that stupid.
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dance you monster's picture

Answer: The anchor's chair.

Seriously, this is the MSM's idea of hard-hitting journalism these days.

Makes ya kinda long for the days of a town crier, someone who knew if he tried to waste your time he'd get a rotten fruit lobbed his way. And yes, I am expressly advocating for widespread assault with foodstuffs. Or in this specific case, flash-mob peeing in this reporter's general direction.

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earthling1's picture

@dance you monster
Would leftovers be ok?
Hard hitting journalism, ha. I think you're right though.
Thanx.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@earthling1

Except foodstuffs are getting a little expensive these days.
Would leftovers be ok?

I believe the custom is to use spoiled foodstuffs, the more odoriferously spoiled the better.

Rotten potatoes are among the best. Surströmming, and the brine it comes packed in, is also popular, as is re-fermented Limburger cheese. Rotten tomatoes are so popular for this application that a famous movie review website is named after them!

You don't throw good food at maldoers! (Although, with regards to the aforementioned surströmming, how the fuck does one tell?)

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@dance you monster this is what they "report" on? I realize these shows are mostly entertainment but really? As if we all don't know people do pee in pools?

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Amanda Matthews's picture

abandoned rock quarries. We survived. And those ponds and lakes and quarries we were swimming in were the toilet for a lot of fish, frogs, and what have you.

I'm not minimising the fact that bodily waste of any kind in a public pool does tend to give one second thoughts about going swimming. But this American fixation with everything in life being germ or bacteria free is really weird. Maybe some people should never leaver their place of residence except once a month to have it sterilised.

Why didn't these f*ckwits go whole hog and have the water tested for everything, bacteria, germs, poop, pee, viruses, pollution, anything else they could have come up with? If you're going to scare people you might as well do it up right. And if you make it scary enough, it might just be good enough to get you a couple days coverage on the nightly national news programs and PBS.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Lily O Lady's picture

@Amanda Matthews

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Lily O Lady
Thanks.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

riverlover's picture

and could have been tested in parallel to pee. Wink

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@riverlover

In 1998 in Georgia, 26 people were sickened after swimming in a pool with a child who had E. coli. Seven people were hospitalized and one was killed by the outbreak. The pool’s chlorine level had not been adequately maintained.
In New Mexico in 2008, a competitive swimmer who ignored symptoms of diarrhea caused 92 swimmers, including other competitive swimmers, coaches and lifeguards, to contract the illness.
In 2001 in an Illinois water park, 358 people contracted diarrhea, despite adequate chlorine and pH levels. Swimmers can add up to several pounds of feces per day in a typical water park.

https://www.nachi.org/pool-water-pathogens.htm

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

riverlover's picture

@Amanda Matthews And when I swam in ostensibly-better ( at least not Cl-treated) St Lawrence River water I closed my eyes tight and did not spit water. Goose poop! Snake poop! Stuff growing! What a scaredy-cat I was.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

for a few months. Two months ago I travelled to Guatemala and Honduras. My 78 year old roomie loves a pool! After she swam, some email popped up on her phone saying 50% of pool liquid was urine, 60% of sauna liquid was urine. She refused to get into the suana or pool after that.
(Not an issue for me. I sit by the pool, watch, drink beer, and mull over other pressing problems.)

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981