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Urine is sterile when produced by a healthy body but loses its sterility when expelled due to contamination from bacteria in the air and collection container. It is safe to drink in small quantities, but repeatedly drinking it reintroduces waste products into the body. The high water content of urine can be treated and recovered as drinking water, as done on the International Space Station.
A natural product of the body’s waste treatment system, urine is sterile when produced by a healthy body. However, it loses that sterility when it is expelled from the body. The first contamination can occur during the urination process, when urine collects bacteria that live in the epithelial cells lining the urethra. Upon leaving the body, the sterility of the urine can also be compromised by bacteria present in the air and in the collection container. In fact, since natural sterile environments are virtually non-existent, once urine has left the body, it loses its sterility almost immediately.
When urine is said to be sterile, it is meant that it does not contain bacteria or other living organisms, or their spores. This is the case with urine when it is first produced and stored in the bladder before being expelled from the body. What is sometimes overlooked is that a sterile substance like urine is quite capable of sustaining or promoting life. In fact, the urea in urine makes it palatable for agricultural applications, although it must be diluted before it can be applied safely.
The main ingredient in urine is water, which comprises about 95% of the liquid by volume. The remaining 5% is composed primarily of urea, an organic substance produced by the body that is instrumental in removing excess nitrogen from the body. Chloride, sodium, potassium, and other dissolved organic and inorganic compounds and ions are other substances found in urine, usually in minute amounts.
The composition of urine can be altered if it is produced by an organism with a disease or medical condition. The urine of diabetics, for example, can contain a significant amount of glucose. Likewise, the ingestion of certain foods or medications can have a short-term impact on the appearance of your urine, especially its color. Even in these cases, however, the urine is sterile. The main medical condition in which urine may not be sterile is a urinary tract infection (UTI), in which microorganisms may contaminate the urine in the bladder and make it nonsterile.
The question of the sterility of urine invariably leads to questions about its suitability for drinking. Especially when the urine is sterile, it’s perfectly safe to drink, especially in small quantities. Since urine is composed mostly of water and waste products from the body, it has little or no nutritional value. While drinking urine is an acceptable method of hydration in emergency situations, repeatedly drinking urine, especially one’s own, reintroduces waste products into the body that the body is trying to eliminate. This will eventually put a strain on the kidneys, which are responsible for processing waste in the body.
The high water content of urine can be treated and recovered as drinking water. The International Space Station’s waste processing systems are certified to process mammalian urine for this purpose. This is a valuable resource in an environment like a space station, where there is no renewable source of fresh water. The remediation project processes not only astronaut urine, but also that of laboratory animals on board.
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