Even if it’s safe to go in the water at your local beach, the sand
might harbor bacteria. Rebecca Williams reports a new study finds
contaminated sand could cause beaches to be closed to swimmers:
Transcript
Even if it’s safe to go in the water at your local beach, the sand
might harbor bacteria. Rebecca Williams reports a new study finds
contaminated sand could cause beaches to be closed to swimmers:
If officials find the bacteria E. Coli or Enterococci in beach water,
they usually close the beach. That’s because at high levels, those
bacteria can make swimmers sick. A new study found those two types of
bacteria can be common in beach sand.
Alexandria Boehm is the author of the study in the journal
Environmental Science and Technology. She says the bacteria in sand
can occur naturally, but they can also come from human or animal waste.
She found that bacteria in sand can get stirred into the water at high
enough levels to trigger beach closings:
“If sand is the source of pollution at these beaches it makes
remediation very difficult because we don’t really know how to clean up beach
sand.”
Boehm says more studies are needed to know if people can get sick by
being exposed to bacteria in sand.
For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.