What a great read in the morning!

image courtesy of Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH, found on NIAID's public image directory

E. coli Thrives in Beach Sands

By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer

The perils of a day at the beach aren’t always as easy to see as riptides, broken shells and jellyfish—the sand at the shore may harbor E. coli and other potentially dangerous disease-causing bacteria, a recent study showed.

E. coli is one of the main species of bacteria that live in the lower intestines of mammals, including humans—one person excretes billions of them in a day. Pathogenic strains of E. coli can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

Government testers look for E. coli as an indicator of fecal contamination at freshwater beaches all over the country, because the other microbes present are more difficult to detect (another bacteria is used to test for fecal matter at ocean beaches because E. coli does not survive well in salt water).

Does Not survive well in salt water.....that's somewhat a relief but not totally.....

Beaches all over the country frequently close due to fecal contamination; a day at the beach can be ruined if septic systems overflow or malfunction, or if a lot of birds happen to be in the neighborhood.

Hmmm a lot of birds. What does a lot of birds being around have to do with e.coli?

Seasonal sources

To test exactly which strains of E. coli were sitting in the sands around Lake Superior, and whether any of them were potentially dangerous to humans, a group of University of Minnesota researchers collected samples and compared the DNA to an existing library.

Their results are detailed in a recent issue of the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

They found two broad types of E. coli in the sand: those “deposited more recently,” as team member Michael Sadowsky put it, and those “that have learned to kind of grow or reproduce in the sand,” he said.

Those deposited more recently......*gag*

The levels of both of these sources vary seasonally. Those that have become indigenous to the lake sands tend to be more abundant in the summer, when nutrients are more available and temperatures rise. Contributions from birds tend to come when they are migrating through the area. Fecal contamination from sewage can occur whenever there is a malfunction or overflow.

Ok birds.....I get the bird thing and e.coli now. I was having a brain fart (I did see the "bacteria from...lower intestines of mammals" part up there)

Importantly, the study found that very few of the E. coli present on the beach are potentially harmful to humans—other microbes that tend to travel in the same waste streams, such as Salmonella, are more of a worry to health officials.

Well that sounds somewhat better (although not the Salmonella part), but still, when I hear *fecal matter* that lies in a place where I sit or walk or maybe fall down on, I get a little wigged out. And thinking about how it gets there, and not just animals (people changing diapers out in the great wide open and then throwing said diaper right there on the ground? I've seen it, or see the aftermath of said diaper changing) makes me just cringe and shudder. I know it lives in my own body, but I don't want to be privy to someone else's e.coli TYVM! Now animals granted they don't watch where they crap, especially birds. But I do try to avoid walking or sitting on their crap also.

But you likely wouldn’t get sick just from wiggling your toes in the sand, because most of these bacteria follow what Sadowsky terms the “fecal to oral route.” Which means you should listen to your parents and wash your hands frequently, especially after using the bathroom and before eating.

Speaking of washing after using the bathroom, it still amazes me (I don't know why it still amazes me, because I should be used to the nastiness of people by now) that people DO NOT wash their hands after wiping their ASS! I witness this when I am at the theater (not the ass-wiping part, although in the hospital I walk into the mom;s room and there she is in all her GLORY on the pot with the bathroom door open. Talk about ruined retinas). Women will come out of the stall, primp in front of the mirror and then just walk on out. AND THEY BOUGHT POPCORN! Well, the e.coli IS their own. N - A - S - T - Y. Now granted, kids, I can understand to a point. Unless mom is in there with them, kids don't think to do that unless always told and until some point in their life they remember to do it on their own. Not sure when that point is. I know on a rare occasion I didn't wash all the time, but my mom was around a lot to make sure I washing my hands. Even at home, if I think about not washing my hands after using the toilet, it's only brief. I still have to wash my hands. Because eventually they will find their way to my face to get something out of my eye, or pick my nose, or bite a nail. OH I shudder to think....

“Getting it on your skin is not going to be very dangerous,” he said.

Just watch what you swallow. *shudder*