Resort Cities Finally Cleaning Up Their Beaches

Photographs of gentle blue waves lapping pristine, sun-bleached beaches are a must for most travel brochures. What is never visible is the ocean and beach pollution that has become a threat to the health of swimmers in many parts of the world.

From Santa Monica Bay to the Mediterranean and the coasts of Britain; from Caribbean islands to the South Pacific coral reefs, the cleanliness of our seas and beaches has become a growing problem. But the good news is, we’re finally starting to do something about it.

Until recently, the huge water capacity and mighty powers of self-cleansing have kept our seas relatively free from refuse and man’s carelessness. But the sheer volume is taking its toll. In many of the world’s idyllic places, tiny villages have grown into large cities for which the sea is a convenient dump. Likewise, freighters and cruise ships that visit these places have used the sea as a waste receptacle.

Now, in varying degrees around the world, there is evidence that a turning point has been reached. And, not surprisingly, interest in cleaning up beaches is swelling so that money-making tourism is maintained or, in some cases, recaptured.

Last year, according to Australian Dr., a publication for physicians, Sydney doctors advised patients to avoid beach swimming after a New South Wales health department study found that swimmers were more apt to have respiratory, ear and eye infections than people who sat on the beach but did not swim.

The study found that water at all the Sydney beaches contained fecal coliforms or sewage bacteria. The report also found that people who swam at beaches with higher concentrations were 30% more likely to complain of symptoms than those who swam in cleaner water.

One of the most serious problems was at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach, where a sewer pipe that extends into the ocean was discharging semi-treated sewage close to the beach. Public outcry over the sewage washing up on the beach prompted the Australian government to build a new pipeline and treatment plant that opened last month.

In Europe, member nations of the European Commission are attempting to clean up their ocean waters and eliminate possible health threats connected with swimming at beaches stretching from the Mediterranean--where 50 million tourists vacation each year--to the Irish Sea. France’s Rhone River, which courses past petrochemical and nuclear plants, deposits enormous amounts of chemicals into the Mediterranean each day.

In Great Britain, studies on effects of ocean swimming have been conducted, with results similar to those of the Australian study. A recent survey of 320 beaches by the British Ministry for the Environment and Countryside found nearly half of them contaminated, with 35 having harmful levels of viruses. Last year, the EC named 140 British beaches as failing to meet swimming water cleanliness standards. A study by Lancaster University in England on children who swam at the beaches revealed that they were three times more likely to have vomiting spells and five times more likely to have diarrhea than kids who stayed out of the water.

The English Tourist Board this summer announced that 35 of Britain’s beaches were given European Commission awards for successfully meeting criteria covering swimming water quality, beach cleanliness and management and safety provisions. But English Tourist Board chief executive John East predicted that some resorts can never hope to win because of inadequate sewage systems. The Ministry of Environment said $4.8 billion will be spent over the next 10 years to improve the quality of coastal waters.

Some scientists are skeptical of studies that link illness with swimming in the ocean. They reason that most diarrhea-causing bacteria do not survive long in saltwater. And although viruses can survive for months in saltwater, skeptics point to the scarcity of information associating serious viral illness with swimming, considering that millions of swimmers are exposed. Further, few good studies have been conducted.

Dr. William Kammerer, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Travelers’ Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., is firmly convinced that health problems will increase if more ocean pollution prevention is not practiced. His main interest is Caribbean islands.

“The presumption has been that if you dump stuff into the ocean, the saltwater will purify it,” he said. “But the ability of the ocean to purify and carry away sewage and debris is no longer adequate. The Caribbean is becoming one of the most polluted.”

The problem is compounded by cruise ships and other vessels that discharge waste into the ocean. Islands in chains such as the British Virgins are so close together that their beaches are particularly vulnerable to accumulating waste from ships, Kammerer said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is engaged with the United Nations in Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico cleanup programs aimed at setting ship waste disposal standards. They have not yet tackled the larger health threat posed by inadequate sewage systems on some islands. According to Marilyn Varela of the EPA’s international office, all ships must now store waste on board until they land. However, she added, even relatively developed Puerto Rico lacks adequate facilities to handle the load that accumulates.

All of the Caribbean governments recognize the relationship between clean beaches and tourism, a $20-billion industry in the region, Varela said. “The French government (Martinique and Guadalupe) posts quality-of-water signs on the beaches,” she said.

Still, the monitoring of beaches for pollution is something that does not occur regularly even in the United States, where it’s up to each state to do it. States usually monitor water only when a sewer pipe has broken, said William Whitson of the EPA’s Gulf of Mexico program. He added that Gulf beaches are “generally healthy but there are places where we’re concerned about the lack of monitoring.” The Gulf is one of the few places in the United States where occasional cases of cholera occur from eating contaminated oysters.

Wearing shoes while strolling on the beach is a good health precaution, especially in countries where sanitation is poor. Shoes protect against hookworm, for example, which may be abundant on contaminated beaches.

Swimming and bathing in freshwater in most tropical lands should be confined to pools and hot tubs that are well-chlorinated and should be avoided in lakes and rivers, which can harbor organisms that cause a variety of serious illnesses.