I truly worry about the state of modern science when the — gasp! — discovery of bacteria in human urine is a shocking surprise worthy of newspaper headlines.
Now one can understand why there is one study that says that x is good for you, and another that says that x is bad for you. They studied things with certain parameters that were different. There are usually endless possibilities to control, and you can’t control for all of them at once. You control for as many as you can think of and manage at a time. As in this case, no one bothered going any further than the basic criteria, until now. It’s a wonder this group got funding. Urine must not have been made a political issue yet.
When visiting Wisconsin Dells about 8 years ago, I saw a sign hanging above each urinal in the men’s bathroom.
Paraphrasing, it said: Wash your hands after you finish. It went on to say that while urine is sterile, it is the bacteria that live on the genitalia that are potentially harmful. It stated that urine was sometimes used in field surgery when water wasn’t available to clean wounds.
All of this was admonished and endorsed by a military person of significant rank, though I don’t remember whom or what rank now.
You’ve got to wonder why they’d spend all than money analysing urine if it was bacteria free.