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Running Head: SWIMMING IN FILTH

Swimming in Filth
Edgar Luna
California State University, Fullerton

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Swimming in Filth
In general, Southern California is known for the wonderful weather and the amount of
things to see and do in the area. Among all of the attractions, a very popular activity includes
going swimming at one of the many beaches located throughout Southern Californias coast line.
On average, there are 129 million visits to those beaches annually with a 5% attendance increase
each year (Dwight, 2007).With that as context, one can then begin to wonder how those numbers
would be affected if the population that enjoyed going to the beach knew what they were actually
swimming in. Most people have seen pictures of clear blue water at vacation getaways, but with
a quick comparison, that type of water is not the one seen on Southern Californian beaches. That
then raises the question; should one be going into the water during a visit to the beach? Not many
people consider that they could be going into contaminated water. Although swimming in the
ocean is often safe, Southern Californians should stay out of our water due to the quality being
harmful to ones health.
Firstly, one must know exactly what they are swimming in before they are able to assess
for themselves if they will continue to go into the ocean. For starters, in this peer reviewed study
by Semenza, Caplan, Buescher, Das, Brinks, & Gershunov they state, exposure to elevated
concentrations of bacteria in bathing waters at southern California beaches has been linked with
an increased risk of contracting infectious diseases, such as gastroenteritis (2012). According to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gastroenteritis is the inflammation of
the stomach and small and large intestines with the main symptoms including vomiting and
watery diarrhea. (2015). In addition to different diseases being in the water, the research
continues forth to mention the fact that there is also Enterococcus in the ocean as well. This
bacteria is mostly responsible for urinary tract infections as noted by Katie Fister and Carol

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Phillips (2009). Furthermore, the authors add that there is fecal pollution in the coastal waters as
well which also pose health risks for people exposed to the water through recreation. When in
the sea, some people, especially children, accidently ingest the water into their system and this is
where problems start to occur. Fecal pollution is basically another way of saying that there is a
large amount of poop or feces in
the ocean that can be harmful to
ones health. One must then keep
in mind that Kathleen Parrott, of
Virginia Tech, states that for
drinking water to be safe no
coliform present for every 100
milliliters of water (2009).
With all of that
information laid out, one can then
begin to question the water

Figure 1: The 43-yr history of water quality at Huntington Beach,

CA. The geometric means and 95% confidence intervals of total
coliform (TC) bacteria during JanuaryFebruaryMarch (JFM)
(top panel) and JuneJulyAugust (JJA) (bottom panel)
calculated using all samples collected within study site. Total
rainfall is shown in blue. El Nio events are designated by gray
bars. (Boehm et al., 2002).

quality of Southern Californian beaches. One common thought that leads people to stop
questioning the cleanliness though, is the factor of heat provided by the sun. It is common
knowledge that at a certain temperature, most bacteria and viruses cannot exist and die off but
that counter argument does not hold in this case. In a study conducted at the University of
California, Irvine, in the months of June, July and August, bacteria levels actually increased even
though those are usually the hottest months of the year (Boehm, Grant, Kim, Mowbray, McGee,
Clark, Foley, Wellman, 2002). Analyzing figure one, one can see that with or without rainfall,
bacteria levels rose and therefore even with the heat of the sun, the bacteria can still thrive. By

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taking a closer look, this graph one can also show that almost all year round there are increases
and decreases in levels of bacteria but even at the lowest points, there is still close to 20MPN
(Most Probable Number of Cells)/100 milliliters of water. Simply put, there is about 20 cells of
the bacteria in every 100 milliliters of water and as mentioned earlier, there must be no cells for
it to be safe to drink. As a visual aid, 100ml of water is approximately three medicine cups worth
of water.
Yet another thing people will use to
defend the participation of water related
recreational activities is the changing of
the tides. The ocean is, of course, very
large and with such a high volume, the
tides should easily wash the bacteria
away to a point where the concentration
is too small for the bacteria to matter, but
again that is not the case. Most people
know that the tides are controlled by
Figure 2: The lunar phase is indicated at the top of the
graph ( and are full and new moons, respectively) Data
collected at Hunington Beach. Boehm et al. (2002)

the Earths and Moons gravitational

interaction. Boem et al. (2001) used this fact to show how the tides effect bacterial population. In
figure two, one can see the concentration of bacteria graphed against the days of the lunar cycle.
By paying attention to the patterns, one can see that the tide does not dilute and spread out the
bacteria and simply brings it back in closer to the beach. With further analyzation, about every
seven days, the tide will bring back most of what was already there as well. If the argument for
dilution held, within every cycle there would be a significant drop in bacterial population and

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thus this figure completely disproves that. Again, even more of the lower values go over the
acceptable drinking water limit of zero bacteria for every 100 ml of water.
Along with what is already in the ocean, the tide also brings in more hazards from the
sand on the beach as well. In a study published in Oxford Journals, Dr. Christopher D. Heaney
and his team interviewed 27,365 people
who visited seven beaches across the
United States and asked about their
interactions with sand such as digging or
burying themselves in it. Ten to twelve
days after their visit, the researchers
asked about any health symptoms that
may have risen and the results
showed that there was a positive
correlation between interacting

Figure 3: Illness Incidence According to Sand Exposure and Adjusted

Incidence Proportion Ratios Comparing Those With Sand Exposure
With Those Without Sand Exposure, NEEAR Study, 20032005,
2007a.
Data was gathered from Goddard, Fairhope, Edgewater, Washington
Park, Silver, Hunington, and West Beaches. (Heaney et al. 2009)

with the sand and gastrointestinal diseases (2009). Figure 3 displays the results of the survey
which shows that those who dug in the sand had 1.13 times the risk of having gastrointestinal
illness and 1.20 times more of contracting diarrhea (Heaney et al., 2009). The study then follows
up and reports those who buried their whole body in the sand had 1.23 and 1.24 times the risk of
contracting gastrointestinal illness and diarrhea, respectively. Because of the way the tide works,
either way one looks at it, the bacteria is going back and forth through sand, human, and ocean
interaction and thus is present as seen with how many people fell ill through Heaneys study.
As shown earlier, there is a significant amount of bacterial pollution in the ocean year
round but more importantly, there is a direct relationship between rainfall and unsafe water

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conditions. According to Boehm et al. (2002), Southern California has separate storm and sewer
systems that can both contribute to an increase in infectious pathogens. Furthermore, the study
goes on to say that during the winter of 1969, the raw sewage that went into the Santa Ana River
during February storms caused some of the highest levels of Coliform ever recorded at 1200
MPN/100mL. Coliform, as stated by Todar (2007), can cause pneumonia and urinary tract
infections as well and if that is mostly present after rainfall, then one can immediately see
swimming in beach water is not safe especially during those times. The argument that one can go
into the ocean if there is no water ingested is then refuted. According to the Vermont Department
of Health, the health protective level is 235 organisms for every 100 ml for one not to worry
about swimming in the water and in this case it is clear the levels are higher (Coliform Bacteria
in Water, 2015). Even without looking at the highest point, there are still many spots on the
graph close or above this value year round.
Now one can start to see the entire picture of what exactly is in the ocean and realize that
going swimming in the ocean near Californian shores is ill advised. Between the costal tides not
filtering out bacteria, the year round presence of it in our water regardless of weather, and the
fact that rain puts an even higher concentration into the ocean, the argument holds that Southern
Californian water is unsafe. Plus, with the run off from sewage and beach sand putting more
bacteria into the ocean, there is definitely a risk factor presnt. While humans continue to dispose
of their waste through sewage contamination and littering this problem will only worsen as time
goes on. If the goal is to have those crystal clear waters in all throughout the coast of California,
then not only must there be a way to monitor the bacteria levels, but also a way to monitor waste
going into the sea. Until that becomes a reality, research shows that swimming in the ocean poses
a health risk through bacterial exposure and one is basically swimming in filth.

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References
Boehm, A. , Grant, S. , Kim, J. , Mowbray, S. , McGee, C. , et al. (2002). Decadal and shorter
period variability of surf zone water quality at huntington beach, california.Environmental
Science & Technology, 36(18), 3885-3892.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What is infectious gastroenteritis? Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/pub/FAQ/faq.pdf
Coliform Bacteria in Water. (2015). Vermont Department of Health. Retrieved from
http://healthvermont.gov/enviro/water/coliform.aspx
Dwight, Ryan H., PhD. (2007). The Human Tide: Beach attendance and Bathing Rates for
Southern Californian Beaches. Retrieved from
http://www.coastalconference.org/h20_2007/pdf_07/2007-10-23-Tuesday/Session_1CBeach_Use/Ryan-The_Human_Tide_Beach_Attendance_and_Bathing_Rates_for_S.pdf
Fisher K, Phillips C (June 2009). "The ecology, epidemiology and virulence of
Enterococcus". Microbiology. 155 (Pt 6): 174957. Retrieved from
http://mic.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.026385-0#tab2
Heaney, C. , Sams, E. , Wing, S. , Marshall, S. , Brenner, K. , et al. (2009). Contact with beach
sand among beachgoers and risk of illness. American Journal of Epidemiology,170(2), 164172.
Ki, S. , Ensari, S. , & Kim, J. (2007). Solar and tidal modulations of fecal indicator bacteria in
coastal waters at huntington beach, california. Environmental Management, 39(6), 867-875.
Parrott, K. (2009). Interpreting your Water Test Report. Publications and Educational Resources.
Retrieved from http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/356/356-489/356-489.html
Semenza, J. , Caplan, J. , Buescher, G. , Das, T. , Brinks, M. , et al. (2012). Climate change and
microbiological water quality at california beaches. EcoHealth, 9(3), 293-297.
Todar, K. (2012). "Pathogenic E. coli". Online Textbook of Bacteriology. University of

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WisconsinMadison Department of Bacteriology. Retrieved from

http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/