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THE NATIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF RECREATIONAL WATERS: RESULTS FROM THE FIRST SUMMER OF FULL-SCALE STUDIES
Citation:
Wade, T. J., R L. Calderon, E A. Sams, K P. Brenner, M. Beach, A. H. Williams, AND A P. Dufour. THE NATIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF RECREATIONAL WATERS: RESULTS FROM THE FIRST SUMMER OF FULL-SCALE STUDIES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
Impact/Purpose:
to evaluate new rapid and specific indicators of recreational water quality and to determine their relationship to health effects
Description:
Introduction
The National Epidemiological and Environmental Assessment of Recreational Waters (NEEAR) is a multi-year study of recreational water conducted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), designed to evaluate new rapid and specific indicators of recreational water quality and to determine their relationship to health effects.
Methods
We conducted studies at a Lake Michigan beach and a Lake Erie beach during the summer of 2004. Interviewers asked beach-goers to return to the interview station to complete a series questions relating to swimming and other activities as they left the beach for the day. Ten to twelve days after the beach interview, interviewers telephoned each household to ascertain health symptoms (gastrointestinal, respiratory, eye, ear, skin) experienced in the days following the beach interview.
At each beach water samples were collected at several transects (three at Lake Michigan and five at Lake Erie) at 0.3 m and 1 m three times a day. Samples were tested for enterococci using Method 1600 and for enterococci and Bacteroides sp. using real-time PCR.
Results
At Lake Michigan 2877 individual interviews were completed. At Lake Erie, 2840 individual interviews were completed.
At Lake Michigan, daily geometric means of enterococci (Method 1600) ranged from 1 to over 1000 with and 3 days exceeded the current US EPA guideline value. At Lake Erie daily geometric means of enterococci ranged from 1 to over 800 and 6 days exceeded. Significant trends were observed between enterococcus as measured by real-time PCR and gastrointestinal illness at the Lake Michigan Beach and when both beaches were combined. Real-time PCR measures of Bacteroides were predictive of gastrointestinal illness at the Lake Erie beach.
Conclusion
Fecal indicators of recreational water quality measured by real-time PCR are very promising in their ability to predict health effects associated with swimming in recreational waters.
This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.
