Survival Urine?

G

Gautier

Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
461
Alright, the thread sounds odd, but stick with me here. It all started about 5 minutes ago in the bathroom when nature called. Being a desert rat, I try to keep well hydrated, so my urine was mostly clear. As I went to the sink to wash my hands I had an idea.

Usually urine is just a waste by product, we don't generally repurpose it for anything unless you happen to be in dire straights and want to make a solar still. I like carrying multi-use items, and I figured if I'm going to carry a bladder full of water anyway, why not use it.

Most of you have probably seen or heard that fire can be made from a condom filled with water. If not, try a youtube or google search, that should bring it up(I take no responsibility for what else it brings up :D ).

I don't see any particular reason that the principle wouldn't work with urine, the same as it does with water. A well hydrated person urinates mostly clear anyway, and the "lens" is the perfect shape to facilitate filling. Not only that, if you save the "lens", you've got water that you won't mind wasting, to put the fire out.

Obviously, being night time, I haven't put this to the test, but it's a thought I had. Feel free to call me a sick, unhygienic weirdo and shoot this idea full of holes.


Gautier
 
Urine is sterile.... so I wouldn't call you unhygenic... just lay off the asparagus prior to field testing, eh.
 
Yeah, but it makes a pretty good breeding ground for bacteria. Might want to use a wet wipe after making your "lens". :p


Gautier
 
Hey Gautier,

Thats some really 'out-of-the-box' thinking. Of course, you do realize that condoms were designed to catch a different type of fluid from the same body part right?
 
i heard once that if you put out a fire with urine you can get pink eye from the smoke/steam. Is there any merit to this?
 
kgd said:
Hey Gautier,

Thats some really 'out-of-the-box' thinking. Of course, you do realize that condoms were designed to catch a different type of fluid from the same body part right?
Click to expand...

I think I recall using them for that a long time ago, you could be right. :D Oh well, same body part, same shape, different fluid.


Gautier
 
*Sigh* You people are only ones I know that get all worked up about a condom when there is no females around :rolleyes:












:D:D:D
 
I'm age 74 and worked at logging as a kid. It was standard procedure to pee on cuts to cleanse them when we were a long walk from water. As one of the other posters said, urine from a healthy person is sterile, so you can also save it for first aid if necessary. BTW, I believe pink eye is caused by bacteria and not by urine fumes from a fire.
 
Bigdumplings said:
i heard once that if you put out a fire with urine you can get pink eye from the smoke/steam. Is there any merit to this?
Click to expand...

As far as I know, pink eye is bacteriologically based, and there's no correlation.

Also, I've done it a million times, and it's never happened to me.
 
One of my very elderly hunting buddies is a Battle of the Bulge veteran and a retired trauma surgeon. He said that urine from healthy males is an acceptable fluid for cleansing battlefield wounds. As noted above, it's sterile.

DancesWithKnives
 
Old CW4 said:
I'm age 74 and worked at logging as a kid. It was standard procedure to pee on cuts to cleanse them when we were a long walk from water. As one of the other posters said, urine from a healthy person is sterile, so you can also save it for first aid if necessary. BTW, I believe pink eye is caused by bacteria and not by urine fumes from a fire.
Click to expand...

Was told in the Marines years ago to piss on a bandage for a gut would to keep the gut from drying out if no water available. Have read in folk medicine books, urine on feet to kill athletes foot. Ear ache urine in ear. Urine collected in troughs to make gunpowder addative. Salt peter? No pink eye from the pissing in fire, unless too close and the steam gets you.
 
My surgeon/veteran buddy said "healthy males" rather than "healthy persons". He said the different plumbing on females creates a risk that the urine will not be sterile and, therefore, it is not recommended in the battlefield medicine literature.

DancesWithKnives
 
A virus can be carried by steam or smoke. I work in an operating room and we have been warned about the smoke from Bovie coagulators carrying viruses by the CDC.
 
riddleofsteel said:
A virus can be carried by steam or smoke. I work in an operating room and we have been warned about the smoke from Bovie coagulators carrying viruses by the CDC.
Click to expand...

However, as was pointed out earlier, urine is sterile.
You can't get pink eye from peeing on a fire unless you are allergic to something in the smoke.
 
I'd take the "sterile urine" cautiously. It's supposed to be sterile (although it is not routinely checked for viruses), but the vast majority of urine specimens I've had to review, have had some degree of contamination (and the vast majority of those were from patients w/o UTI symptoms, or evidence of UTI on urinalysis).

They started selling a lot of stuff for the OR to deal w/ the possible spread of viruses in the smoke from the electrosurgical units (HPV is supposedly a really bad one, in that regard) - special masks, suction devices that attach directly to the electrosurgical handpiece (or handpieces that have it built in). I'm careful about keeping the smoke down to a minimum, when at all possible.
 
Pink eye, viruses, bacteria, the sterility of urine...You're kind of missing the point here. :p Fire--from urine. Something you need and that could be potentially lifesaving, coming from something you were literally going to piss away anyhow.
Sure, I wouldn't make it my primary means of firestarting, but in a survival situation it's worth having an extra trick up your sleeve...or down your trousers, as it were.


Gautier
 
w00d nice show was laughing all the way haha.

loosearrow i agree on the urine killing athletes foot
i use it on mine and it work wonders

no need to buy extra medicine.
 
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