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The suggestion made by two University of East Anglia students that urinating while showering could result in huge water savings (¡°The week in higher education¡±, News, 16 October) may have health consequences that were not foreseen by the authors of this scheme.

Our water is chlorinated, and chlorine reacts with organic matter in the water to form ¡°disinfection by-products¡± (DBPs). Those formed in the presence of urine include nitrosamines ¨C a particularly toxic group of compounds. When one stands under a hot shower for a long period of time, one is in effect standing in a cloud of volatile DBPs and breathing them in. Exposure to DBPs can lead to increased incidences of certain types of cancer ¨C cancer of the bladder in particular.

My tip for saving water, energy and the planet is quite simple: short cold showers. Pee in the toilet but don¡¯t necessarily flush after each emptying of the bladder.

Dr Gilbert Shama
Reader in applied microbiology
Loughborough University