So it’s summer and of course
you’re heading out to the beach.
You’re splashing around in the waves from the ocean
when you realize…
you may have drank far too much water.
The boardwalk is so far away and your feet will
get all sandy so why not just go in the ocean, right?
Does your conscious kick in at this point
and make you feel guilty?
Well. It shouldn’t.
It’s our mission to make you know it’s
absolutely okay to go in the ocean.
Here’s why:
First off, urine is mostly water.
The average human’s urine
is more than 95 percent water.
It also has between one to two grams
per liter of sodium and chloride ions.
Guess what’s in sea water?
The ocean is about 96.5 percent H-2-Oh
and has a higher concentration of sodium
and chloride than urine.
Urine and sea water also contain
small amounts of potassium. So far so good.
Second, urea is the main waste product in our urine.
As our bodies break down proteins in food,
urea is the leftover compound that gets rid
of excess nitrogen in our bodies.
The amount of urea we release in our urine is
just, pardon the expression, a drop in the ocean.
The volume of the Atlantic ocean
is about 350 quintillion liters.
That’s 350 and eighteen zeros.
If every person on Earth peed the average
amount of pee containing the average amount
of urea into the Atlantic, there would be just
60 parts per TRILLION of urea in the ocean.
That’s nothin’ folks.
Plus, urea contains a lot of nitrogen,
which converts to ammonium in water,
which feeds ocean plant life.
So no issue there guys.
We’re still good.
Finally, forgetting all the fancy math,
every animal in the ocean… pees in the ocean.
The fin whale lets out about 970 liters of urine A DAY.
That’s nearly 250 gallons!
So if they’re not harming things,
you certainly aren’t as well.
So there you go.
Feel free to pee in the ocean and go back
to worrying about more important things
like that shark that’s right behind you.
OH! And we have to mention this:
peeing in the ocean is totally fine.
But DON’T pee in protected areas like reefs,or
smaller bodies of water, especially swimming pools.
Check out this episode of one of our favorite
series Breakthrough Science to find out why.
Also, check out the C&EN blog post linked in
the summary to learn more about peeing in the
ocean, courtesy of our friend Lauren Wolf,
C&EN reporter and admitted ocean pee-er.
If you’ve got a chemistry question for us,
doesn’t matter how silly
(I just talked about pee for 2 minutes)
leave it in the comments
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Be sure to check out our other videos too.
Take a look at the science of Ice Cream,
or how to get rid of your garlic breath.
We’re back next week with more awesome chemistry.