Beach Sand Found to Be Full of E. Coli Bacteria
Pastor Dale Morgan
Beach Sand Found to Be Full of E. Coli Bacteria*
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
By Andrea Thompson
AP
These French sunbathers on the beach in Cannes probably should avoid
eating the sand.
The perils of a day at the beach aren't always as easy to see as
riptides, broken shells and jellyfish — the sand at the shore may harbor
E. coli and other potentially dangerous disease-causing bacteria, a
recent study showed.
E. coli is one of the main species of bacteria that live in the lower
intestines of mammals, including humans — one person excretes billions
of them in a day. Pathogenic strains of E. coli can cause vomiting and
diarrhea.
Government testers look for E. coli as an indicator of fecal
contamination at freshwater beaches all over the country, because the
other microbes present are more difficult to detect. (Another bacterium
is used to test for fecal matter at ocean beaches because E. coli does
not survive well in salt water.)
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Beaches all over the country frequently close due to fecal
contamination; a day at the beach can be ruined if septic systems
overflow or malfunction, or if a lot of birds happen to be in the
neighborhood.
To test exactly which strains of E. coli were sitting in the sands
around Lake Superior, and whether any of them were potentially dangerous
to humans, a group of University of Minnesota researchers collected
samples and compared the DNA to an existing library.
Their results are detailed in a recent issue of the journal
Environmental Science and Technology.
They found two broad types of E. coli in the sand: those "deposited more
recently," as team member Michael Sadowsky put it, and those "that have
learned to kind of grow or reproduce in the sand," he said.
The levels of both of these sources vary seasonally.
Those that have become indigenous to the lake sands tend to be more
abundant in the summer, when nutrients are more available and
temperatures rise.
Contributions from birds tend to come when they are migrating through
the area.
Fecal contamination from sewage can occur whenever there is a
malfunction or overflow.
Importantly, the study found that very few of the E. coli present on the
beach are potentially harmful to humans — other microbes that tend to
travel in the same waste streams, such as Salmonella, are more of a
worry to health officials.
But you likely wouldn't get sick just from wiggling your toes in the
sand, because most of these bacteria follow what Sadowsky terms the
"fecal to oral route."
That means you should listen to your parents and wash your hands
frequently, especially after using the bathroom and before eating.
"Getting it on your skin is not going to be very dangerous," he said.
Just watch what you swallow.