Don’t Get in the Pool, There’s Definitely Pee and Germs in There!

I've battled being a germ-a-phobe since around the time I turned 20. I've gotten much better in the past year, really I have. But what I've just read set me back five years. I for one, am done with public pools. A new study revealed that 1 in 5 Americans admit to doing somethin' nasty in the pool and with pool season upon us I thought it pertinent to share this and a few other disgusting pool facts with you.

So what is it? One in 5 Americans admit to peeing in the pool. The whole 1 in 5 thing only surprises me cause I thought it'd be more like 3 or 4 in 5. I went to Cozumel three years ago and I don't think one person got out of the swim up bar the entire trip, that's nasty -- folks were throwin' back a lot of drinks. Maybe a higher percentage of people do it only on vacation, I don't know.

What I found just as disgusting, maybe even more so, is what the the Huffington Post article had to say about folks that do get out to go number 2 which is,

Fecal matter is never a good thing in the pool, no matter how good of a job you think you did cleaning up afterward. This can spread things like E. coli, which lead to diarrhea and other illnesses.

GROSS! I never even thought about that.

And the biggest stunner to me was chlorine doesn't kill all the germs, I've just assumed it pretty took care of all those suckers. Boy was I wrong.

The article goes on to say, "Sweat, cosmetics, sunscreen, perfume, hair products, bug spray and other dirt can mix with chlorine to create irritants that can cause skin rashes and red eyes."

Michele Hlavsa, chief of the CDC’s Healthy Swimming Program explained to CNN: