Ready to dive into a cesspool of discomfort? Ever considered that your local public pool might be a toxic mix of sweat, pee, and—brace yourself—diarrhea? Buckle up, because 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. openly admit to peeing in the pool. And let’s not forget swim diapers: like leaky teabags full of kiddie poop, they don’t hold back fecal matter, which often finds its way into the water. The CDC says nearly 1 in 8 pools fail health inspections due to excessively filthy water, often swimming with pathogens like E. coli and the ever-lingering Cryptosporidium, which laughs in the face of chlorine. And the whole “chemical smell” everyone thinks is chlorine overload? Wrong! It’s actually a reaction of chlorine with bodily fluids. So, next time you accidentally swallow pool water—an average of half an ounce per swim—remember you might be sipping on someone else’s leftover bathwater. Yum!
