

How much pee in a pool would kill you? - bmoresbest55
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/ask-ars-how-much-pee-in-a-pool-would-kill-you/

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Nanzikambe
If you just want to satisfy your curiosity without wading through the article:

    
    
      In the end, we need a pool that is two parts water to one part chlorine and would probably burn the
      eyeballs out of your sockets and make your skin peel away from your bones (this calls for a pool boy who 
      can only be criminally sadistic). If you and three million other people could get at this pool and unload
      your pee into it before your bodies melted, before the crowd crushed you to death, and before you drowned
      from the massive tidal wave of pee... yes, you could feasibly die of cyanogen chloride poisoning
      originating from chlorinated water and pee.

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vilhelm_s
This article is about Uric acid + Chlorine producing Cyanogen chloride (NCCl),
but a bigger concern in practice is Urea + Chlorine producing Trichloramine
(NCl3). It has been suggested[1] that this reaction is responsible for the
rise in asthma cases.

Also, it is responsible for some ignoble controversy around the new public
bathhouse in my old home town. Apparently there was a perfect storm, in that
the building both has a poorly designed ventilation system, _and_
inconveniently located restrooms which tempt people to...

No deaths so far, but several people complained about the bathhouse air making
their asthma flare up, and when measured the concentration was above the
health and safety limits [2].

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_chlorine_hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_chlorine_hypothesis)
[2][http://www.sydsvenskan.se/lund/kansliga-personer-varnas-
for-...](http://www.sydsvenskan.se/lund/kansliga-personer-varnas-for-
trikloraminet/)

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pvnick
This is actually pretty cool. I would love to see examples like this used in
high school gen-chem courses. It would probably help to keep the students'
interest in what could be either an incredibly dull or exciting subject,
chemistry.

~~~
lambda
This is fairly reminiscent of xkcd's What If blog post series: [https://what-
if.xkcd.com/](https://what-if.xkcd.com/)

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jabagawee
If you enjoyed reading this article, xkcd's Randall Munroe publishes "what if"
analyses on a sporadic basis at
[http://whatif.xkcd.com/](http://whatif.xkcd.com/).

~~~
andrey-p
It's not sporadic, it's updated every Tuesday. (But yeah, seconded.)

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Someone
Scale that down, and you have 2/3 liter of water, 1/3 liter of chlorine, and
one person peeing to get the same deadly concentration.

I can't base it on any even remotely scientific argument, but to me, something
seems wrong with that conclusion; it just seems weird that it would be that
easy to get a poisonous concentration. I guess it is that the deadly
concentration is of the gas in air, across multiple inhalations. If so, one
needs much more of the gas.

But as I said I simply don't know. Can anybody else?

~~~
samatman
If you were to urinate straight into off the shelf bleach, bad things would
happen. For maximum drama, let the urine age for a few days to build up
ammonia levels.

[http://www.chemaxx.com/explosion16b.htm](http://www.chemaxx.com/explosion16b.htm)

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ori_b
If you enjoyed reading this article, you might find The Straight Dope
([http://www.straightdope.com/](http://www.straightdope.com/)) interesting as
well.

One of my favorites: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/113/the-story-
of-sc...](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/113/the-story-of-
schroedingers-cat-an-epic-poem)

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richm44
About an inch if you're face down in it.

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morkfromork
The ocean is mostly fish pee.

