The Real Reason Your Eyes Sting and Turn Red When You Swim in Pools Is Horrifying

Did you think it was the chlorine that hurt your eyes when you went to public water parks? Think again

Ah, summer. The weather is warm and there is nothing better than hitting the community pool or local water park to cool down. And the smell of chlorine? That's synonymous with summer vacation! And those stinging, red eyes you get from swimming in pools? Why, that's synonymous with urine!

Seriously.

So apparently all those times you got out of the pool with itchy eyes that were all red from the hours upon hours of swimming was not due to the chlorine used to disinfect the pool. But if you want to live in naïve bliss and keep thinking that, we'll allow it. Stop reading now. It's better to just believe your eyes are stinging from chemicals.

But in reality, they are stinging because of PEE.

The Centers for Disease Control recently teamed up Water Quality and Health Council and the National Swimming Pool Foundation for their annual Healthy Swimming Program, which seeks to educate people about the health benefits of swimming and gives tips on water safety.

But now, nothing will ever feel safe again. Thanks a lot, CDC!

In this report, they cleared up a common misconception about chlorine in public swimming places. Chlorine isn't the reason for the irritation; at least, not only the chlorine.

"It's quite the opposite. Chlorine binds with all the things it's trying to kill from your bodies, and it forms these chemical irritants," Dr. Michael J. Beach tells Women's Health. "That's what's stinging your eyes. It's the chlorine binding to the urine and the sweat."

That's right. Your eyes are burning because you have come into contact with URINE. Before we found out this tidbit, we could kind of push away the idea of swimming in a pool of urine in public places because we couldn't really see it. Out of sight, out of mind, you know? But now? Now, whenever our eyes turn red or sting, we'll know it's probably because we just swam through a giant cloud of someone's piss.

Happy summer!

Oh, and that dye that supposedly turns the water purple or green or whatever color if someone pees in the wave pool? A total myth.

"It's about scaring people into not urinating in the pool," he says.

So to sum up:

Well, at least we know the pee in the pool is clean pee. Is that a thing? We're going to make it a thing.

PHOTOS: Celebs' incredible pools (probably minus the urine)