Doctors Suspect Illnesses Linked to Polluted Waters Off County’s Coast

Every time Dr. Steven Coyle hits the surf these days, he develops a painful sinus infection and ends up on a weeklong course of antibiotics.

Thomas Millington, a Thousand Oaks physician who specializes in treating scuba divers, has noticed small outbreaks of ear infections among patients diving in local waters.

Dr. Steve Roslansky, who has also suffered sinus infections, has witnessed his surfing buddies doubled over with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fever.

These local physicians and others have diagnosed illnesses they suspect come from bacteria or viruses in polluted waters off the Ventura County coast.

“It’s a problem for all of us,” said Dr. Steve Barrett, an avid windsurfer and staff radiologist at St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo. “People in L. A. are a little more aware of pollution. It’s happening up here just as much.”

Swimmers, surfers and even sun-worshipers who wade into the ocean can contract illnesses from disease-causing microorganisms, especially those excreted from human intestines.

Most bacteria and viruses quickly die in the ocean, particularly when zapped by ultraviolet rays from the sun. For that reason, coastal waters are usually safe for swimming.

But major winter storms can overwhelm coastal waters with billions of gallons of urban and farm runoff--and sometimes raw sewage--which is laden with toxic chemicals, germs and other pathogens.

And some areas along the coast pose a lingering public health threat as long as nearby rivers, creeks and storm drains deliver fresh plumes of pollutants.

The local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, a coastal protection group, has found that bacterial levels soar to unsafe levels at most popular surf spots after significant rainstorms.

In three years of taking their own seawater samples and studying pollution tests done by Ventura sanitation officials, Surfrider officials have determined that bacterial contamination poses its greatest health risk during the rainy season.

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But one beach stands out as a year-round health risk: Surfers Knoll in Ventura.

Bacterial counts frequently spike to unsafe levels at the beach, situated at the mouth of the Santa Clara River. City and state officials attribute the high levels to urban and rural pollutants picked up by the 100-mile-long river that reaches into north Los Angeles County.

Surfers and windsurfers are among those most vulnerable to water-borne illnesses because many of them are willing to take their chances in turbid waters when the waves are big, said Dr. Mark Renneker, co-founder of the Surfer’s Medical Assn.

“When the big storms are raging, that’s when the surf’s the best,” Renneker said.

Furthermore, wave riders tend to congregate near the mouths of rivers and creeks because they are often the best surf spots. Rivers and creeks deposit sediment that fans out on the ocean floor and creates well-shaped, peeling waves that are ideal for long rides.

Surfrider has collected accounts from thousands of California surfers about ailments they believe were contracted from ocean pollution.

The top three complaints are ear infections, sinus infections and skin rashes, said Dr. Gordon LaBedz, a UC Irvine medical professor and the foundation’s coordinator of environmental issues.

Gastrointestinal distress, the disease most often associated with human sewage, follows in fourth place.

With advances in sewage treatment, LaBedz said Surfrider is focused on urban runoff as the biggest threat to public health.

“We’ve got vast quantities of organic material, animal feces, urine, oil and grease that sits in parking lots or sits festering in storm drains until it gets washed down into the ocean,” LaBedz said. “Dogs carry 30 different bacteria and viruses that can make people sick.”

Despite Surfrider’s anecdotal accounts, public health officials have no formal mechanism to measure the extent of illness associated with ocean pollution.

Most of the ailments are not life-threatening, physicians note, though it’s possible to catch hepatitis and other debilitating diseases from raw sewage overflows.

As a result, Millington regularly administers immune-booster shots to ocean divers fearful of hepatitis. “When you are breathing underwater, you always get a little bit of saltwater in the regulator and you would be exposed to it,” he said. “It makes divers a little more cautious.”

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Doctors also believe that surfers, the group most often exposed to pollutants in near-shore waters, are less likely to have medical insurance and less likely to seek medical attention than the general population.

And since many of the ailments occur during the wet winter months, physicians said they are hidden among the illnesses reported during the regular cold and flu season.

“We see a lot of people come in with vague complaints and low-grade fever,” said Geoffrey Loman, a Ventura physician and longtime surfer. “Typically, we ask questions, ‘Are your kids sick?’ We don’t ask, ‘Have you been out surfing?’ ”

Even if a physician and patient suspect an illness was contracted in the ocean, proof is difficult if not impossible.

There has been limited medical research into the correlation between illness and ocean pollution.

In the most noted study, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency found “a direct, linear relationship between swimming-associated gastrointestinal illness and the quality of bathing water” along the beaches of New York City, New Orleans and Boston.

Comparing swimmers to non-swimmers on the beach, the seven-year effort found that “swimming even in marginally polluted marine bathing water is a significant route of transmission” for stomach flu.

Yet there has never been an epidemiological study conducted along the West Coast, which differs from the East and Gulf coasts because it has cooler ocean temperatures and deeper waters close to shore.

Last week, however, USC Medical School’s Department of Preventive Medicine launched a $1-million study on the health risks of swimming in Santa Monica Bay.

Researchers will track the medical condition of 12,000 adults and children who swim in the waters off Malibu and three other beaches. The study will try to determine whether there is a greater risk of swimming near storm drains and if test results of bacterial contamination can determine the health hazards.

If more money is forthcoming, researchers hope to return with a study that focuses exclusively on surfers.

“Nothing has ever been done like this,” said Robert Haile, a USC epidemiology professor directing the study. “There isn’t much known, interestingly, given the concern about it.”

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R on Grimaud knows he has no scien tific proof, but he cannot imagine another way that he contracted a staph infection that showed up after he surfed the waves just north of Ventura Harbor.

Grimaud, a 63-year-old Oxnard Shores resident and organizer with a Christian surfing league, has been plagued with painful boils on his body since he paddled out after a rain in late November.

Tests showed he was carrying staphylococcus bacteria in his nose. He believes he reinfected himself when he would wipe his face and then towel off the rest of his body.

“The only thing I can suspect is water contamination,” said Grimaud, a retired aerospace engineer. “How else would I contract this?”

Five courses of antibiotics and six months later, he hopes he has finally whipped the tenacious bacteria.

“I’m tired of messing with it,” Grimaud said.

With cases such as these, surfing doctors have become far more choosy about when they paddle out to the waves.

“After big rains, you have to know that sewers fill up with water and run into storm drains,” LaBedz said. “Hospitals flush their toilets and they have people there with horrible diseases. Surfers who go in the water after a big rain are taking a big risk.”

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Tips to Avoid Illness

Physicians offer these suggestions to minimize exposure to disease-causing microbes while surfing near the mouths of rivers, streams or storm drains.

* Stay out of the water for three days after a major storm to allow pollution to disperse, and bacteria and viruses to die.

* Wear ear plugs and avoid “duck diving,” or otherwise submerging the head.

* Wear rash guards to prevent chaffing that is more susceptible to skin infections.

* Do not enter the ocean if you have open cuts or other wounds.

* Rinse wet suits and allow them to dry between surfing sessions.

* Shower and scrub vigorously with soap afterward.