Close your eyes and imagine standing at the side of a public swimming pool: Chlorine clings to your nostrils, and that makes it a totally clean place to swim, right? Not according to a survey conducted by the Water Quality and Health Council, who found that one in five adults admit to peeing in the pool. It's not the chlorine that's making your eyes red: that is actually a result of chloramine, the chemical created when urine combines with chlorine. Over the course of an hours swim, you'll have ingested one twelfth of a litre of urine. Maybe you were unaware of the fact that the average swimmer contributes at least 0.14 grams of fecal matter to the pool water within the first 15 minutes of entering, too. We add sweat, pee, lotion and other body fluids to the invisible soup of chemicals and bacteria, so god only knows what you're swallowing as you bash out those 30 lengths.
