09.sep.07
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Joel Hood
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5119812.html
Fort Lauderdale, FL — A new two-year study of beaches in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Miami was cited as finding that sand tainted with E. coli and other potentially harmful bacteria in levels 100 to 1,000 times greater than what's in the water lapping at the shore.
The story asks, is beach sand making us sick? The best research so far says, possibly.
Scientists know E. coli can harm us. They're finding it and other fecal bacteria in large quantities on some beaches. Logic tells them that we should be falling ill. But scientists have never found a direct link, and the few studies that have been completed have generated more questions than answers.
Even the authors of the new study of South Florida beaches are divided about the risk of beach sand.
Florida Atlantic University scientist Nwadiuto Esiobu, was quoted as saying, "We believe the risk is there, whether or not there have been documented problems."
Not necessarily, says Nova Southeastern University scientist Donald McCorquodale, who suspects beach bacteria are largely harmless and have lost their capability to make someone sick.
That two experts can look at the same data and come to different conclusions illustrates how complicated this area of study is, scientists say, and both sides say more study is needed before anyone really understands what's at stake.
Timothy Wade, an epidemiologist with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, was quoted as saying, "Just because you're finding high levels of bacteria doesn't mean there's a health risk. And it doesn't mean it's safe either. The truth is we simply don't know."
The story says that the South Florida study, published last month in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, is among the first of its kind to look at local beaches but limited its research to Broward and Miami-Dade counties. But it comes on the heels of other studies, on public beaches in Southern California and around the Great Lakes region, that found similarly high levels of E. coli and other types of fecal bacteria, suggesting the problem isn't confined to one area.
But like a lot of scientific explorations, there are no clear answers what this means.
