The EPA Has Some Bad News About Beach Sand: It Can Make You Sick
- Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:21pm by
Becket Adams
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Digging and playing in beach sand presents a greater risk of getting sick than does swimming or sun tanning, according to a new study led by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“Researchers surveyed some 5,000 beach visitors and found that those who dug in the most contaminated sand were twice as likely to fall ill with diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach aches,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “Those who had been buried in the sand showed an even greater tendency to get sick.”
Researchers for the EPA, the University of North Carolina, and Johns Hopkins University claim that polluted beach sand contains more pathogens (i.e. infectious agents) than the surf.
How did they reach this conclusion?
“Scientists made the sand-sickness correlation by taking 144 samples of wet sand from beaches in Fairhope, Ala., and Warwick, R.I., that are near waste-water outfalls, testing them for bacteria that indicate the presence of harmful viruses and pathogens,” the Times reports. “Researchers also asked beach visitors if they dug in the sand and swam in the water. Two weeks later, they called participants to see if they had gotten sick and what their symptoms were.”
Although scientists have claimed for years that swimming in waters polluted with sewage puts swimmers at risk for gastrointestinal illness, EPA researchers are the first to link similar ailments to polluted beach sand.
“The symptoms we observed are usually mild and should not deter people from enjoying the beach,” said Timothy Wade, chief of the EPA’s Environmental Public Health Division Epidemiology Branch and senior author of the study, in a news release.
“But they should consider washing their hands or using a hand sanitizer after playing in the sand or water,” he added.
Based on the EPA’s “polluted sand” report, and taking into consideration the fact that the agency has already said that sun tanning will kill us and that polluted water will poison us, we are starting to believe that maybe — just maybe — we shouldn’t go anywhere near the beach . . . ever.
Introducing the EPA’s 2012 swimsuit collection
(H/T: The Consumerist)
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Comments (64)
tobywil2
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 5:26pmI don’t need the beach sand. Just the thought of the EPA makes me sick! See how the bureaucracy works: click on http://commonsense21c.com/tobys_fable.html
Report Post »Secret Squirrel
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 9:04pm.
Report Post »“We’re the EPA, this beach has to go.
Then we’re removing all the CO2 from the Earth.
Stop breathing. That’s an order.”
MCDAVE
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 9:17pmNo the EPA will ban people from going on the beaches
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 12:18amHEY… If people are stupid enough to go to the beach and eat sand, get sick and die from it, Then it proves DARWIN’S THEORY…Survival of the fittest and smartest!!!
The stupid will weed themselves out of the gene pool and/or from beach!!
Report Post »Howlingmad
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 3:23pmOne may be so bold as to say that if the EPA were doing it’s intended job in the first place, the beaches wouldn’t be so dangerous…
Report Post »Tickdog
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 5:15pmheck anything and everything can make you sick when it comes right down to it..
Report Post »iblvingd
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 6:23pmEPA ? Not very credible resource. They are ok with Chemtrails and Haarp. The only thing that is new in the sand is what the government has put in there with all the chemtrail spraying, green energy, nuclear waste, poisons from GMO engineering of Monsanto. Everything else has been there since time was recorded and it got the world here today. Funny thing its everything in the last 100 years that is killing us. Who is killing who here? The NWO is killing us!
Report Post »Wakeup Maggie
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 7:13pmOh sht
Report Post »Wolf
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 4:53pmEspecially the EPA, FDA, DHS, NDAA, POTUS, and CONgress.
Report Post »Heb4Seven
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 5:06pmArticle says: “we are starting to believe that maybe — just maybe — we shouldn’t go anywhere near the beach . . . ever.” ….Um…pretty sure that’s what the EPA is hoping will be the result from this news. I’m also quite sure there are many little ones peeing on the sand…and don’t forget the dogs…birds…fish poop….
Report Post »iblvingd
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 6:37pmEPA, FEMA just roping in the herd. Lesson 101 how to create hysteria, that controls the herd. Blah BLah Blah
Report Post »LIBS-ARE-DINGLEHEADS
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 5:01pmThe EPA has made me sick for years. I say BAN it.
Report Post »Ammaof3
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 4:56pmI think the nutty greenies just want to keep us off the beaches now and take away just one more pleasure. Screw ‘em!!!
Report Post »Wolf
Posted on February 7, 2012 at 4:59pmThey just want to make it easier for wetbax to get ashore.
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 4:56pmSoon…the tyrants in D.C. will designate some beaches as polluted and some clean. THe clean ones will have sand that is zapped by some small dose of radiation to kill all bacteria. THen…they will charge an arm and a leg to get on these beaches. THey will be the exceptionally nice ones and they will be only for government types and doctors and lawyers….maybe engineers. That is if they all are willing to pay the price. The other beaches will be for us riff-raff and the environmental laws around them will be more lax since they are already polluted and frequented by the masses.
Report Post »republic2011
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 5:15pmYou have an exceptional grasp of communism and the effects of socialism, and, what is to come in this country if we continue down the current path. I have seen things like this in East Germany, as a child, and this elitist approach is exactly what happens in regimes where you allow the government too much power.
Report Post »nelan72
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 4:25pmLets replace it with cow manure then.
Report Post »Mateytwo Barreett
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 4:07pmI smell- – a GRANT! For the study of this problem!! Half Bil- maybe more.
Report Post »mbck1491
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 4:07pmPretty soon Obama and his czars will pass legislation to regulate beach sand.
Report Post »possom
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 5:55pmtoo late it’s been done.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 4:03pmSo, now not only does the EPA not want you to use migratory waters for recreation inland, now they don’t want you on the coasts, either? Migratory waters from farmers fields to man made lakes, reservoirs, ditches, canals, settling ponds even if no water exists, can be classified “migratory waterfowl wetlands” if migratory birds access it. Literally, that means every acre of land in the northwest. I’ve had geese and ducks in my yard. I’ve also had Magpies, Sea Birds, Crow, Hummingbirds and various other migratory species. Meaning, my home “IS” in a wetland waiting to be classified that way, maybe. “It all depends.” Says the EPA. and we haven’t mad up our minds yet on what it depends.
Report Post »smithclar3nc3
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 4:11pmThe just determined that actual existance is the number one cause of death. Studies show that made up fictional characters can live forever while chararcter of the non-fictional variety suffer death 100% of the time. The EPA is working on banning reality.
Report Post »spirited
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 3:59pm“…swimming in waters polluted with sewage puts swimmers at risk for gastrointestinal illness”
————————————————————
– Quick thinking EPA!!!
Hm… Being born is dangerous too!
%^> ….You’re one day closer to dying.
Report Post »Jedidavid
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 3:55pmI think the reason people are “getting sick from the sand” is because we as a whole don’t do anything anymore. We are making ourselves sick. We have weak immune systems because we dont expose ourselves to anything.
Report Post »JQCitizen
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 3:46pmhow COLLOSSALLY STUPID do you have to be to work at the EPA?
So they CALL THE PEOPLE in TWO WEEKS and assume their sickness is from SAND? I hope they did more than that; like maybe putting a cam on them the WHOLE TWO WEEKS to get a bead on what ELSE they had been doing during that time?
A WHOLE LOT of things other than Sand can make you get DIARRHEA.
Obama has DIARRHEA OF THE MOUTH, maybe he EATS SAND.
Report Post »Dougral Supports Israel
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 3:39pmSoon the EPA will conclude that life is 100% fatal and demand that it cease immediately.
Report Post »MOLLYPITCHER
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 3:38pmwe’re all going to die eventually. you can’t fight it. best not to spend our lives worrying. just wash your hands before you eat, and you’ll be okay.
Report Post »starman70
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 3:17pmBeach sand can make you sick. As a kid, we played near a storm sewer drain on the beach. the odor was rather foul but as kids, that didn’t matter. We got sick with intestinal symptoms. Needless to say, we didn’t play in that area any more. As kids, we figured out that we got sick from that area and we avoided it completely. We didn’t even need parents to tell us that either, we knew better.
It is a good thing for parents taking their kids to the beach to be aware of but as usual, the EPA will over react and ban all beach going for everybody. When the asylum is run by the inmates, what else can you expect.
Obama wants a Nanny State, ahh,ahh, aah
Report Post »Michelle has you eati’n good, yah,yah,yah
The government will keep you safe, ha,ha,ha,
This BS ain’t what I want, nah,nah,nah
THE EQUALIZER
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 3:08pmThe EPA has the same effect on me! Mostly a gassy bloated feeling.
Report Post »I.Gaspar
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 3:01pmComing soon…the Sand Tax.
Report Post »goahead.makemyday
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 2:52pmBeach sand is harmful but they fight to protect jellyfish and stingrays. Wow.
Report Post »stogieguy7
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 2:41pmYeah, probably best not to frequent beaches that are located right by sewage treatment plants. Or within 50 miles of Mexico (which is the same thing, only untreated).
Report Post »AJAYW
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 2:37pmLook out it won’t be long before you are going to be charged with child indangerment if you take your childern to the beach. What a country of idiots have we become–
Report Post »Maxim Crux
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 2:35pmI know it can give you one hell of a rash beach surfing
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 2:34pmHey Honey..lets go swimming and spent the day by the sewage plant.
Report Post »I’m not feeling so good…………….
cessna152
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 2:30pmBeach sand can make you very sick…if you eat 40 lbs of it in one sitting.
Report Post »TRONINTHEMORNING
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 2:25pmWe really need to close the doors on this backward, money-wasting organization of elites. Out with the EPA! Vote GOP!!
Report Post »psadie
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 2:50pmAmen. The EPA has done more damage to this country than any other agency. You can’t do a thing without permits or guidelines that need following. And you wonder why businesses are disgusted and leaving the USA for better environments in nations that welcome them with open arms.
Report Post »RagingJudge
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 3:55pmThere’s only one candidate on the GOP ticket that actually wants to do anything about the EPA… much less eliminate it.
Maybe you should re-examine your strategy.
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