9. Sea water did not affect the strength of ropes.
10. Ropes soaked overnight in urine had their strength reduced by 30%, however, only when loaded over a sharp edge would this matter.
One should question the nature of testing before swallowing its implied
or express conclusions. Quoting from
Handbook of Fibre Rope Technology,
"After drying, salt crystals are known to cause internal damage under cyclic
or flex loading." (And they present two electron microcope images of Kevlar
ropes with fibrillated fibres from salt crystals.) So, we should question of the
UIAA what the basis for assertion #9 is--e.g., testing a rope that was just soaked
and dried,
but not used in any way, would not disclose the potential damage
from salt water immersion & then drying.
As for soaking in petrol, a rope maker once told me that, while petrol itself
wasn't damaging, there was no assurance about whatever additives might
be in it--YMMV, you be the guinea pig.
There is also a curious way of wording w/the UIAA evidenced in the statement
about the urine only being of importance if loaded over a sharp edge; in their
report on rope-marking pens' affect on ropes, they seemed to loss of strength
with breaking over a sharp edge in fewer drops.
*kN*