New research published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology has revealed that the focus is now on fecal contamination that reaches water, and that it can cause stomach aches, diarrhea and severe skin rashes for those who use it. they accidentally swallow harmful germs or come into contact with them in some way.
But that's not all. Staying playing on the beach to avoid getting contaminated poses even greater risks. Over the past decade, scientists have found fecal bacteria in beach sand at levels 10 to 100 times higher than in the vicinity of seawater.
To try to find out why, in the lab researchers created microcosm of beach sand and sewage-contaminated seawater to see how total bacterial populations, including the fecal inhabitants responsible for causing the disease, might change over time. .
To their surprise, they found that microbial communities tended to decline much more slowly in the simulated beach sand environment than in water , a phenomenon that accounted for more fecal bacteria on sandy beaches affected by sewage contamination than in water. the interior of the sea.
