Beaches are designed to help us unwind. We are transported away from the pressures of daily life by the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks. However, a recent devastating research issued a warning about how beaches have become dirty and poisoned. According to research by the environmental advocacy group Environment America, more than half of the US seashores it examined had “faecal contamination” at potentially dangerous levels. On July 5, the report was made public and posted on the organization’s website. According to Environment America, of the 3,192 beaches it examined, 1,761 (55%) had at least one day of unsafe levels of contamination, exceeding the standards for beach safety established by the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
363 beaches or one out of every nine beaches examined across the US, had potentially dangerous levels of faecal contamination
According to the report, 363 beaches—or one out of every nine beaches examined across the US—had potentially dangerous levels of faecal contamination on at least 25% of the testing days. According to the research, the Gulf Coast had the largest percentage of seashores that were unsafe for at least one day in 2022 (84%). The West Coast (70%) and the Great Lakes (63%) came next. 58% of the 344 beaches in New York that were evaluated by the organisation had at least one day with possibly hazardous levels of faecal indicator bacteria. According to Environment America, in 2022, more than 25% of the days tested revealed that 12% of beaches were dangerous.
The organisation also outlined how beach pollution endangers people’s health. According to the research, swimming in contaminated water can result in gastrointestinal illness, respiratory conditions, ear, eye, and skin infections, as well as skin rashes. According to Environment America, swimming in lakes, rivers, ponds, and oceans resulted in an estimated 57 million episodes of sickness in the US. According to the survey, Oregon has the dirtiest beaches in the US, with six of its seashores having unacceptable sanitary levels for more than 75% of the time they were examined. The environmental organisation states that the majority of the contamination was in the form of animal excrement from industrial farms, private septic tanks, and sewers, which are utilised by one in four Americans.