One in four swimming pools in Beijing has too much urine

One in four public swimming pools in Beijing has an excessive level of urea, most of it from human urine, the Beijing Morning Post reports.

About 25 per cent of the 600 swimming pools inspected by the health authority this year were found to contain too much urea, and 77 of them have exceeded the limit for two consecutive years, the report said.

Swimming pool water must contain no more than 3.5 milligrams per litre of urea, according to China’s national standards.

Urea can irritate eyes and skin and make swimmers feel sick, Liu Ying, an official at the Beijing Health Inspection Bureau, told the Jinghua Shibao in July.