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Kamloops doctoral student shoots to fame with swimming-pool pee science

VANCOUVER — Urine trouble.
Lindsay Blackstock
Lindsay Blackstock, a Kamloops native working on her PhD at the University of Alberta, came up with a unique way to measure the amount of pee in a typical swimming pool. Spoiler alert: It's a lot.

VANCOUVER — Urine trouble.

In her publications, Keep Swimming but Stop Peeing In Swimming Pools and Sweetened Swimming Pools and Hot Tubs, Lindsay Blackstock, a doctoral student from Kamloops, explains how she found a way to tell if you’ve peed in the pool.

It turns out, lots of you have.

In a study of 29 swimming pools and hot tubs in B.C. and Alberta, Blackstock discovered the equivalent of 75 litres of pee per large pool and 30 litres of urine per small pools.

It was work no scientist had previously waded into in quite the same way, using an artificial sweetener known as Ace-K, found in a wide assortment of foods and drinks, as an indicator of how much pee could be found in water people splash around in.

Ace-K molecules leave a sweet taste on the tongue, but aren’t broken down by the body and they pass through the body unchanged.

“I wouldn’t say you’re able to measure pee in the pool, but you’re able to estimate how much pee is in a pool,” Blackstock said.

When word of her work leaked out, more than 200 news organizations from around the world reported on her studies, and a Mark Rober YouTube video on the subject went viral, attracting more than eight million views.

Blackstock’s interest in science began early. Long before she sat glued to the tube to watch Bill Nye: Science Guy she and a friend in daycare made placards: “They said, ‘Save Our Rainforests,’ and we’d parade around the backyard.”

She loved attending Thompson Rivers University’s Eureka Science Camp and its iconic magic show every summer. And it was a natural step for a science-loving Sa-Hali Secondary class of 2009 grad to get her Bachelor of Science at TRU.

From there, it was on to pursue a doctorate in analytical and environmental toxicology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton under the supervision of Dr. Xing-Fang Li.

But also, and this is important Blackstock said, she wouldn’t be where she is today without Colten, her Rock of Gibraltar husband.

“He is the foundation of a lot of what I do,” she said. “I feel like he’s an unsung hero.”

They met when she was an undergrad in Kamloops eight years ago and have been married for three years. A millwright, Colten works outside Campbell River for seven weeks and then gets a week off to come home.

“Colten gives me a lot of balance and perspective and support. It’s really hard to shine if you don’t have a strong foundation. He certainly puts in a lot of sacrifice for us,” she said.

Blackstock volunteers with WISER (women in science, engineering and research), which aims to attract and retain women in STEMs (science, technology, engineering, math). She has also recently been the recipient of two prestigious honours: An Izaak Walton Killam Memorial scholarship and a Scholar Award from the P.E.O. Sisterhood, an international philanthropist sorority.

Her current research focuses on disinfectant byproducts in drinking water and her ultimate dream would be to go back to TRU after getting her PhD and teaching at her alma mater.

“What I would really like to do is to go back to Thompson Rivers University and join the team of professors I enjoy and respect there, go back to my hometown and continue doing research into drinking water. That would be the pinnacle for me,” she said.

So, getting back to water …

That smell we associate with chlorine, the one that brings back happy childhood memories of paddling in the neighbourhood pool? It’s not chlorine we smell, Blackstock said, it’s trichloramine. That’s what you get when chlorine, which breaks down bad stuff in pool water, reacts with urea.

“It gives that very strong smell associated with indoor swimming pools,” she said.

It not only gives off that nostalgic pool smell, it can harm the lungs and eyes of longtime swimmers.

But, Blackstock stressed, don’t quit swimming.

“This is a preventable thing. Just try not to empty your bladder in the swimming pool. Just because someone like Michael Phelps says he marks his territory in the pool doesn’t mean we all should.

“There’s no new major risk associated with swimming in pools. The benefits of swimming far outweigh the low risk of long-term exposure leading to asthma, say.”

Just, for decency sake, the next time you ask yourself, ‘To pee or not to pee,’ please realize it’s nobler to get out of the pool and use the toilet.