Don’t eat food at the beach unless you’ve thoroughly washed your hands; make use of beach showers to wash yourself off after a day of sandy fun.

Germs in beach sand ruin some peoples' vacations.

07-13-09 RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—If you enjoy digging in the sand at the beach, you might want to throw a bottle of hand sanitizer in your beach bag the next time you feel like hitting the surf. A new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology finds that sand-diggers are more likely to contract diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems from dirty sand than people who prefer to splash around in the surf.

THE DETAILS: Researchers interviewed 26,609 visitors to seven beaches in the U.S. between 2003 and 2007. All the beaches were included in the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Epidemiological and Environmental Assessment of Recreational Water, and were located near municipal sewage treatment plants. After a day of playing at the beach, respondents were asked questions about whether they’d dug or been buried in the sand, if they’d washed their hands before eating or drinking, and if they’d come in contact with any other potentially unhealthy substances, such as raw meat or runny eggs, in the three days prior to their visit. Ten to 12 days after each visit, the researchers followed up with the participants. Gastrointestinal illness was the most common health problem among people who’d reported digging or being buried in the sand, and the authors cite previous research findings of high fecal bacteria in sand and consider those the most likely culprit. People who played in the sand were 1.2 times more likely to get diarrhea or some other form of intestinal disease than people who didn’t dig at all. The most affected age group were children age 10 and younger.