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.
WHAT IT MEANS: A number of nonprofit groups have studied water quality at beaches, but this is the largest study to date on the cleanliness of the sand kids bury their friends in, says the study’s lead author Chris Heaney, PhD, postdoctoral scholar in the department of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “The beach is not a sterile environment,” he says. “It’s a place large numbers of people enjoy and use for recreational purposes,” and just because it’s surrounded by water doesn’t mean it’s clean.
Here are a few ways to stay healthy at the beach, both in the water and out of it:
• Wash your hands. There are the obvious things people can do to protect themselves from beach contamination—lobby public officials for more widespread alerts about sand contamination and avoid beaches after a rainstorm—but the most effective thing you can do while you’re at the beach is to wash your hands before you eat, says Heaney. If you don’t know whether you’ll have easy access to soap and water, carry an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with you (avoid sanitizers whose main ingredient is triclosan, an antimicrobial chemical that has environmental problems of its own).
• Wash your body. Like your hands, your body could use a good cleaning both before and after your beach visit. Showering with soap and water will keep you and the sand cleaner.
• Clean up after your pets. The beaches in this study were located near sewage treatment facilities, but, says Heaney, “there are any number of nonpoint sources of pollution that could contaminate sand—anything from suburban pets to wild animals living in a watershed.” You might not be able to clean up after the deer or seagulls, but you can clean up after your dog. Even if you’re just walking him around your neighborhood, the waste that he leaves behind can get washed down to the beach during a rainstorm.
• Take these simple steps then enjoy yourself. Out of the 26,609 people in the study, just under 1,500 actually contracted a stomach ailment after playing in the sand. “Enjoy the beach,” says Heaney. Just don’t forget the hand sanitizer.