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I'm probably too squeamish to wash my mouth with it (did Romans really do that?) but washing clothes with publicly collected urine is generally considered to be

by biztos 7y ago

I'm probably too squeamish to wash my mouth with it (did Romans really do that?) but washing clothes with publicly collected urine is generally considered to be a pretty impressive bit of urban engineering, not to mention very environmentally friendly. Wouldn't knock it till you've tried it.

infecto 7y ago
Too lazy to look it up but IIRC it helped kill bacteria in the mouth.
- pge 7y ago
  I think it was to whiten teeth just as it was used to whiten clothes
AdmiralAsshat 7y ago
> (did Romans really do that?) There's a Catullus poem that suggested they did, but clearly it wasn't all Romans, and some of the others even derided them for it. http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e39.htm http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e39.htm
- pmarreck 7y ago
  Love the long-form put-down style here
hisnameismanuel 7y ago
Washing clothes with publicly collected urine was done as recently as the 1800s in many parts of colonial pre-federation Australia.
bernawil 7y ago
Urine is recorded to being used for whitening teeth since at least ancient Egypt. I always thought they used something like a swab for it though, but you can be sure someone out there had the idea to use it as mouthwash lol.
DoreenMichele 7y ago
I think it would make more sense to promote peeing on trees as an environmental thing. (I briefly tried to figure out how to promote that, but I know nothing about starting campaigns of that sort. shrug)
- jmnicolas 7y ago
  > peeing on trees if you want to kill them that is. Pee need to be diluted with water before being used as a fertilizer.
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    Not in my experience. I saw a tree that was half dead come back to life from being peed on regularly for months. Furthermore, the idea I had was not that urine would be the only fluid the tree would get, but that peeing on a tree would mean flushing the toilet one less time per day. Most toilets use premium tap water, not grey water, and water shortages have been a big global issue. Plus tree were dying from drought in California by the millions when I had the idea. I'm sure peeing on them would have been less deadly for most of them than extreme drought.
    - jmnicolas 7y ago
      Funny, I have the exact opposite experience : the trees I was "helping" became yellow quite quickly and came back green once I stopped peeing on them. It was summer but no drought though. I guess it depends on the trees.
      - DoreenMichele 7y ago
        Could also depend in part on the pee. (shrug)

by biztos 7y ago

infecto 7y ago

Too lazy to look it up but IIRC it helped kill bacteria in the mouth.

pge 7y ago
I think it was to whiten teeth just as it was used to whiten clothes

AdmiralAsshat 7y ago

> (did Romans really do that?) There's a Catullus poem that suggested they did, but clearly it wasn't all Romans, and some of the others even derided them for it. http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e39.htm http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e39.htm

pmarreck 7y ago
Love the long-form put-down style here

hisnameismanuel 7y ago

Washing clothes with publicly collected urine was done as recently as the 1800s in many parts of colonial pre-federation Australia.

bernawil 7y ago

Urine is recorded to being used for whitening teeth since at least ancient Egypt. I always thought they used something like a swab for it though, but you can be sure someone out there had the idea to use it as mouthwash lol.

DoreenMichele 7y ago

I think it would make more sense to promote peeing on trees as an environmental thing. (I briefly tried to figure out how to promote that, but I know nothing about starting campaigns of that sort. shrug)

jmnicolas 7y ago
> peeing on trees if you want to kill them that is. Pee need to be diluted with water before being used as a fertilizer.
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  Not in my experience. I saw a tree that was half dead come back to life from being peed on regularly for months. Furthermore, the idea I had was not that urine would be the only fluid the tree would get, but that peeing on a tree would mean flushing the toilet one less time per day. Most toilets use premium tap water, not grey water, and water shortages have been a big global issue. Plus tree were dying from drought in California by the millions when I had the idea. I'm sure peeing on them would have been less deadly for most of them than extreme drought.
  - jmnicolas 7y ago
    Funny, I have the exact opposite experience : the trees I was "helping" became yellow quite quickly and came back green once I stopped peeing on them. It was summer but no drought though. I guess it depends on the trees.
    - DoreenMichele 7y ago
      Could also depend in part on the pee. (shrug)