Science Questions

In response to your discussion last week about whether you can use urine on jellyfish stings: I lived in Hawaii for many years and always carried meat tenderiser as a cure for jellyfish stings. If we got a sea urchin sting, we would definitely wee on that because there's a theory that the sea urchin spines get stuck in your foot and if you wee on it, it dissolves the sea urchin spines. Is this true? Gavin via email

I've had a look around and found that nothing really works for these kinds of stings. Urine is used is used as a folk cure all over the place, basically because it's easily accessible. It's used for anything from bee stings to jellyfish stings. A lot of it may be to do with the placebo effect, but it might also be to do with the fluid washing over the skin relieving some of the pain or washing away any remaining sting particles. If you do get stung, the best thing to do would be to get yourself to hospital.

June 2006