Bacteria in beach sands: an emerging challenge in protecting coastal water quality and bather health.

ABSTRACT: To protect bather health at recreational beaches, fecal indicator bacterial standards are used to monitor water quality, and waters exceeding the standards are subsequently closed to bathers. However beachgoers are also in contact with beach sands, the sanitary quality of which is not included within beach monitoring programs. In fact, sands and sediments provide habitat where fecal bacterial populations may persist, and in some cases grow, in the coastal zone. Specific pathogens are less well studied in beach sands and sediments, but there is a body of evidence that they too may persist in these environments. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge regarding the abundance and distribution of fecal indicator bacteria and pathogens in beach sands of diverse climatological regions,

SUBMITTER: Halliday E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3109870 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature