#bladders

I will not even speculate as to the provenance of this brownish green seaweed that I picked up from the sands, that like the lone seashell I had picked up earlier existed in but a single copy. Certainly it couldn't have been any of the surrounding black rocks, none of which had even a single strand of seaweed, let alone being festooned by it as they are in India to the point where a rock can literally be cloaked in green.

It must have drifted from far off, the buoyancy conferring round spherical bladders to be seen like tiny grapes on this stem clearly pointing to this seaweed mass as being a reproductive structure capable of propagating this species across vast stretches of ocean. It could literally have come from anywhere, and need not have been of local provenance at all.

It's not just anecdotal- according to a 2005 study in the Journal of Urology, people assigned female at birth do urinate more frequently per liter of water consumed. This is thought not to be due to bladder capacity (between 400-600ml for either sex, though as a nurse I have personally emptied bladders that have filled to nearly 2,000ml), nor is it due to the presence or absence of a uterus.

As explained by a 2018 Biology of Sex Differences article, this is likely instead because it requires more pressure in the bladder to overcome the longer urethra in someone born with a penis and prostate. The muscle that controls urination must stretch further to create enough pressure to empty the bladder, so people with longer urethras typically feel the urge to void with a fuller bladder than those with short urethras. That means fewer voids per day and per liter of water consumed.

We have often been advised to empty our bladders, not hold our urine back. However, there might be certain instances when it is not possible. From a long journey on a bus to a concert or a cinema hall watching your favorite movie, these instances can be wide-ranging. In most cases, holding your urine for some time might not cause any ill effects as such, however, if it becomes a habit and you do not relieve yourself frequently, it might pose a wide range of problems for your health. The urine is collected in a hollow, pear-shaped organ called the bladder. Typically, the bladder of an adult can hold around two cups of urine. When the bladder is half-filled, people might start feeling the urge to urinate. In this article, we will discuss in detail how long, and how much can your bladder store urine, and what possible hazards you might be putting yourself in if you keep holding your urine for prolonged periods.

What are the most common dangers involved with holding your urine?

The risk factors and the hazards involved with holding your urine for too long mostly occur over time. Hence, if you are holding your urine for too long during a single instance, and it is not repetitive, you don’t need to be anxious. However, if you are a bathroom procrastinator or someone who has a habit of holding back your urine more often, you might be at risk of a wide range of complications. If you don’t empty your bladder more often, or go on holding back your urine for a day or two, you might have a chance of facing problems like Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs). If you have a habit of holding back your urine, over time, your bladder can start to atrophy and you might develop incontinence. 

When you hold your urine for more than 10 hours at a stretch, you can develop the risk of urinary retention. This means that the muscles of your bladder are not able to relax, as a result of which, you will not be able to empty your bladder even when you want to. In rare cases, holding the urine for too long can even cause the bladder to burst. 

Here are some more complications that you can develop if you don’t urinate properly when needed:

Stretching of the bladder: Regular holding of urine can cause the bladder to stretch in the long run. This can make it difficult or even impossible for the bladder to contract and release urine properly. In such cases, some patients might need additional assistance like catheters.

Damaged pelvic muscles: It can also cause damage to the pelvic floor muscles, such as the urethral sphincter, which keeps the urethra closed in order to prevent the urine from leaking. If this muscle gets damaged, the patient might develop urinary incontinence.

Kidney Stones: In people who have had a history of kidney stones, or have high volumes of minerals in their urine, holding back of urine can cause kidney stones.

How often should a person urinate in a day?

The frequency of urination might vary greatly from person to person depending on a lot of factors. It also depends on the amount of fluids a person is drinking on a given day. While children and infants have smaller bladders, they need to urinate more often. This number can range from eight to ten times per day, however, it can also be much more than that. On the other hand, in the case of an adult, urinating six to eight times per day is considered normal. However, this number can be as low as 4 times a day, to as much as 10 times a day, and still be considered normal.    

Other health issues that can affect your ability to urinate

Sometimes some existing health conditions can lead to the retention of urine. These problems might still go unnoticed, however, they can cause the same problems due to urinary retention as stated above. Some of these common health complications include:

Kidney Failure

Urinary Tract Infection

Enlarged prostate

Nerve damage in the urinary system

Some medications

If you’re just getting into the shipping business, then you’ll want to consider several different options. One of those is bulk liquid transportation, as this gives you a lot of scope to work with. Why would you consider it as an option, and how does the process work? Here’s what you need to know.

What Liquids Can Be Transported In Bulk?

Firstly, let’s consider what liquids can be transported in bulk, and what’s in demand around the country and further afield. You’ll see that really, there’s a huge range of liquids that can be shipped out in container liquid storage to other companies anywhere on the globe.

Edible liquids are a common choice, as they will always be in demand. Think beers and wines, cooking oils, and much more. Water can be shipped too in a bulk liquid transportation tank, but that will often be for areas hit by natural disaster.

You’ll also see that non hazardous chemicals and liquids are shipped in bulk too. This can be anything from shampoos to printer inks and anything in between.

Also, you can look into shipping fuels. These again will always be in demand, but you will have to consider the risks involved and how you want to handle them.

What Kind Of Tanks Are Used?

Once you’ve worked out what kind of bulk liquid you want to work with, you’ll need to know what kind of bulk liquid transportation tank you want to use. There are plenty of options, and so you can pick one that suits your scale, liquid type, and method of transportation.

Drums or barrels: These are a common choice for smaller shipments of bulk liquids, as they can carry around 42 gallons each. They are useful in many cases, but they do require you to have them cleaned and stored after use.

Intermediate bulk containers: These are another popular choice, and are designed to be the in between option between ISO tanks and barrels. As such, they hold around 330 gallons each. They can be stacked up easily too, for better shipping. They do have the same cleaning and storage needs, though.

ISO tanks: These are likely the container liquid storage you think of when you think of bulk liquid transportation. These are larger tanks that are often hauled attached to trucks to get them to their destination. These can hold 5,547 gallons of liquid in a standard tank.

Flexitanks: These are the newest bulk liquid transportation tank on the market, and one that many shipping companies are now using. These are large bag style tanks that are placed in shipping containers and then filled up. They can hold up to 6,340 gallons each, and have a lot of benefits as they are a one use only item. That saves you a lot of cash on cleaning and storing them.

Finding A Market

Once you know the liquid that you’ll be shipping in bulk, and what tanks you’ll use for it, you need to consider where you’ll be shipping them. This is when you’ll do your market research, to see if you can find a market for that liquid.

Typically, there will be a location somewhere in the world where you can sell your bulk liquids. When researching, you do need to consider if you want to ship domestically or internationally. Shipping domestically does constrict the markets you’ll find, but it takes a lot of issues out of shipping internationally.

If you want to ship internationally, then you can use a broker to help you find the right market for you. As they already have large networks, they should be able to point you in the right direction. Often you’ll need to travel to that location to work out a deal with the customer, so you’ll need to keep this in mind when deciding where to sell to.

Loading Up Your Liquids

If you have a market and a buyer, then you can get your bulk liquid transportation in motion. That starts by training your staff in loading your chosen container liquid storage tanks with the cargo.

How you do this will depend on the tanks in question. For example, barrels need to be filled individually, placed on pallets and wrapped with plastic. A Flexitank, on the other hand, needs to be placed in the container and filled up from there. Ease of filling and loading will be part of how you choose your tanks for any shipment.

Shipping Bulk Liquids Out

Finally, you’ll be ready to get those bulk liquids shipped. Again, this is where a broker can come in very useful. You’ll want to find the best way to get that bulk liquid transportation from A to B, and they can use their networks to find it for you.

This also gives you the advantage of finding the cheapest and fastest routes, so you can get your bulk liquid to its end location in the most efficient way possible. Don’t forget that some shipments will need the appropriate paperwork, especially if they’re crossing borders. Your broker should handle this for you too, so be sure to ask them.

What if TFs just don’t have big bladders (and the poop equivalent to a bladder) because there’s so many bits and bobs on them, mostly for transforming, that their creators couldn’t make them bigger bladders? So they just can’t hold it in very well and if there’s anything surprising or alarming going on, they just…let loose?