Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Jan;114(1):24-8.
doi: 10.1289/ehp.8273.

Rapidly measured indicators of recreational water quality are predictive of swimming-associated gastrointestinal illness

Timothy J Wade  1 , Rebecca L Calderon, Elizabeth Sams, Michael Beach, Kristen P Brenner, Ann H Williams, Alfred P Dufour
Affiliations

Rapidly measured indicators of recreational water quality are predictive of swimming-associated gastrointestinal illness

Timothy J Wade et al. Environ Health Perspect. 2006 Jan.

Abstract

Standard methods to measure recreational water quality require at least 24 hr to obtain results, making it impossible to assess the quality of water within a single day. Methods to measure recreational water quality in <or=2 hr have been developed. Application of rapid methods could give considerably more accurate and timely assessments of recreational water quality. We conducted a prospective study of beachgoers at two Great Lakes beaches to examine the association between recreational water quality, obtained using rapid methods, and gastrointestinal (GI) illness after swimming. Beachgoers were asked about swimming and other beach activities and 10-12 days later were asked about the occurrence of GI symptoms. We tested water samples for Enterococcus and Bacteroides species using the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. We observed significant trends between increased GI illness and Enterococcus at the Lake Michigan beach and a positive trend for Enterococcus at the Lake Erie beach. The association remained significant for Enterococcus when the two beaches were combined. We observed a positive trend for Bacteroides at the Lake Erie beach, but no trend was observed at the Lake Michigan beach. Enterococcus samples collected at 0800 hr were predictive of GI illness that day. The association between Enterococcus and illness strengthened as time spent swimming in the water increased. This is the first study to show that water quality measured by rapid methods can predict swimming-associated health effects.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Predicted probabilities of GI illness as a function of Enterococcus QPCRCE, predicted from the logistic regression model, adjusted for age and beach.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alexander LM, Heaven A, Tennant A, Morris R. Symptomatology of children in contact with sea water contaminated with sewage. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1992;46(4):340–344. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Applied Biosystems 1997. User Bulletin #2: ABI PRISM 7700 Sequence Detection System. Foster City, CA:Applied Biosystems Corporation.
    1. Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act 2000. Public Law 106-284. Available: http://www.epa.gov/ost/beaches/beachbill.pdf [accessed 16 November 2005].
    1. Boehm AB, Grant SB, Kim JH, Mowbray SL, McGee CD, Clark CD, et al. Decadal and shorter period variability of surf zone water quality at Huntington Beach, California. Environ Sci Technol. 2002;36(18):3885–3892. - PubMed
    1. Cabelli V, Dufour A, Levin M, Habermann P. 1975. The impact of pollution on marine bathing beaches: an epidemiological study. In: Middle Atlantic Continental Shelf and the New York Bight: Proceedings of the Symposium, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, 3–5 November 1975, New York City, New York. Lawrence, KS:American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, 424–432.

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources