CDC: Red eyes while swimming caused by urine, not chlorine

wtae.com ^ | Jun 19, 2015 | wtae.com

[Dallas59]

Those red eyes you get from swimming aren't caused by chlorine, according to an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And the substances in the pool that do cause your bloodshot eyes will probably make you a little seasick.

“Chlorine binds with all the things it’s trying to kill from your bodies, and it forms these chemical irritants. That’s what’s stinging your eyes. It’s the chlorine binding to the urine and sweat,” says the appropriately named Dr. Michael J. Beach, associate director of the CDC's Healthy Water program.

[PA Engineer]

Ok. One too many "t"s. Really. It is and it's the adult onset variety on college campus.

My daughter came down with it during finals. She was very sick and took weeks to resolve.

[Secret Agent Man]

What utter bs, yes.

[Secret Agent Man]

I had this as a debate topic in high school. Water quality.

[Milton Miteybad]

Well, there has to be some amusing yet appropos clip from South Park we can get off YouTube to accent this thread. ;-)

[Yaelle]

Is there ANYTHING theCDC says that is believable?

[KarlInOhio]

"Ahh, Dude, Weak!"

[RedHeeler]

Yes, don’t let people piss in your eyes, and tell you- “it’s chlorine.”

[Ronin]

I didn’t do it, nobody saw me do it, you can’t prove anything!

[Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America]

Gee. During the Olympics, Bob Costas must have been indulging in some (wait for it..) ‘WATER SPORTS’ himself when he had that horrible case of ‘red eye’.

[dr_lew]

Yes, I for my part don’t believe this, largely from my experience in chlorinated swimming pools. Some are more irritating than others, and from my perspective, the only logical variable is the chlorine concentration.

Two cases in point,

1: A large public pool with numerous bathers of all ages: water is clear and irritation is mild, but noticeable.

2: A private pool, seldom used, principally by adults: water is slightly hazy and irritation is extreme, with severe effects after opening my eyes for even a few seconds.

[Daffynition]

[mountainbunny]

Yeah. I'm really comforted that the CDC is on top of this.

I'm puzzled as to why they are covering it at all. The guy who sells pool chemicals down at the hardware store knows this. It isn't a secret. It is simply just bizarre.

Maybe when they are finished with this profound discovery they can move on and explain why Scarlett Fever is on the rise again.

It would be a much better use of their time and effort. Agreed. Scarlet Fever was on the rise in the UK last winter, and according to the news, is now raging in the middle Eastern country of Oman.

I hope they find out soon why and how to stop it. My sister got sick at school in the spring of her 4th grade year, and by the time she got home (no one called from school), she had a very high fever and was covered in the rash. She ended up in the hospital and it damaged her heart.

A friend of ours had mastoiditis last winter, also caused by the same bacteria (strep). Her doctor had never seen a case prior to hers. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. Strep can be so dangerous.

[PA Engineer]

A friend of ours had mastoiditis last winter, also caused by the same bacteria (strep). Her doctor had never seen a case prior to hers. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. Strep can be so dangerous.

My Wife is a MD and I've gained a great deal of pillow osmosis over 29 years. We had to actually bypass the physician visits and order up the follow up tests. That was emergency, general medicine and infectious disease. They were fixated on the horse when it was a case of a zebra (this is a medical diagnosis analogy). All the symptoms were obvious, but they avoided the obvious from the presented symptoms. We kept telling them this was the zebra diagnosis.

There is no requirement to report Scarlet Fever to local health departments, however there is enough alarm for many to begin to report it.

We will be following up with echo and other tests. Hopefully they will follow up with a prophylactic course of antibiotics. For my Wife, this is an embarrassment in her profession.

There is a very nasty Strep out there. My Daughter was on a course of Clindamycin for impacted wisdom teeth (typical for the age) prior to finals until surgery. We figured the timeline indicates this is where she was exposed. The Clindamycin should have suppressed the infection. I am surprised this did not raise alarms.

[Safetgiver]

I went the Public Pool the other day and the damned lifeguard yelled at me so loud I almost fell in!

[Real Cynic No More]

Another reason not to believe anything the CDC tells us.

[Sooth2222]

Yes, does Dr. Michael J. Beach know about WW1?

[stellaluna]

You are supposed to urinate while in the water not standing next to it.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Pee? Sweat? Really?!?

Dr. Beach is wrong to a large degree. In a large municipal pool, w/hundreds in and out, urine (and sweat similar compositions) WILL cause chloramines (spent chlorine). But do the math...a few ounces of urine per swimmer in a municipal size pool (80 to 100k gallons plus) is NOT the issue. The same with a private, back yard pool (avg inground 20k of water)...does anyone really believe that the ounces urine produced by a small child, dissipated in that volume of water can cause an issue?

The “red eye” issue comes from acidic water. Low ph and low alkalinity—bring the water to neutral (ph of 7.2 to 7.6 and alkalinity of 100 to 150 ppm) and your eyes will be fine.

Using tri-chlor tabs, coupled w/acidic rain (coupled w/minuscule amts of urine and sweat) DROP ph and alkilinity.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

This report is total BS! I’m a chemist, people who would believe this are just followers not thinking or people with knowledge. Makes a nice headline, but it is a lie. (Guess we like lies more than truth these days).

[petercooper]

Where does the Baby Ruth fit into your analysis?