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 Researchers looked at rates of illnesses among beach bathers and
those who stayed high and dry, and found that people exposed to
seawater were 86 percent more likely to experience any type of
illness and more than twice as likely to have an earache.
“There have been lots of studies looking at the links between
bathing in the sea and experiencing a variety of symptoms of ill
health,” said lead author Anne Leonard from the European Centre for
Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School,
in Truro, UK. “These have been summarized mostly for
gastrointestinal complaints such as diarrhea and vomiting,” she
added in an email.
For their analysis, the researchers reviewed nearly six decades’
worth of studies done in what are considered high-income, developed
countries such as the U.S., UK and Australia.
It’s common to think the risks of swimming in these parts of the
world are minimal, Leonard and her colleagues write in the
International Journal of Epidemiology. Standards to maintain clean
seawaters and compliance to set regulations are considered to be
much higher than in other, lower-income countries.
“I know that water quality testing around the Rio Olympics in Brazil
revealed pathogen and indicator bacteria levels that were orders of
magnitude higher than what we see in the U.S.,” said Ben Arnold, a
researcher at the University of California, Berkeley School of
Public Health, who wasn’t involved in the study.
“So, in settings that may not have the same level of regulatory
guidelines or sewerage infrastructure, the health risk associated
with seawater exposure could be considerably higher,” he said in an
email.
Overall, Leonard’s group found that gastrointestinal illnesses were
less commonly reported, with an increased risk of 29 percent among
bathers.
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These findings don’t necessarily mean people need to steer clear of
the sea, Leonard said.
“There are many health benefits from swimming in the sea, such as
improved physical fitness and an increased sense of wellbeing and
the above ailments are likely to be minor in the majority of
bathers, probably resolving without medical intervention in a few
days.”
Still, Arnold noted, some individuals should take caution, in
particular children and those with weakened immune systems.
“In the U.S., a large pooled analysis . . . of 84,411 beachgoers
found that children 0 to 4 years old were at much higher risk of
gastrointestinal illness compared with adults following contact
exposure,” he said.
Children lack a fully developed immune system, tend to spend more
time in the water and are much more likely to swallow it than
adults, Arnold added.
And all swimmers should avoid seawaters after heavy rainstorms, as
exposure within three days of a storm is associated “with much
higher rates of acute illness across a range of symptoms,” he
advised.
“We would recommend that bathers avoid going in the sea after it has
been raining heavily, as this is when water quality is likely to be
poorer and the risks of getting sick may increase,” Leonard said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2p88qbZ International Journal of Epidemiology,
online February 26, 2018.
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