Bathers risk falling ill at 100 British beaches

 Add your view

Beaches make bathers ill

Bathers venturing into the sea this summer face a high chance of falling ill at over 100 popular British beaches.

Raw sewage and farm waste pumped straight into the water mean that one in seven swimmers risk catching a stomach bug or contracting an eye, ear or nose infection.

The high levels of pollution mean that 130 beaches fail to meet standards of water cleanliness recommended by the European Union.

They include beaches in favourite holiday destinations including Scarborough, in North Yorkshire, Hastings, in East Sussex and Ilfracombe in North Devon.

The cleanliness of bathing water was measured last summer when samples were taken from every beach and tested for organisms that live in sewage and can cause infections.

It found that 427 out of 561 beaches achieved the recommended EU standard, which is the equivalent to swimmers having a one in 20 risk of falling ill every time they go into the water.

But bathers elsewhere face a chance of between 5 per cent and 14 per cent of infection from swallowing sea water, or absorbing it through the nose or ears, every time they go for a dip.

The stark warning about the dangers of bathing in the sea comes despite a £10billion clean up by water companies over thirty years that has made big improvements.

But environmental campaigners say that there are still 73 beaches in Britain where raw or semi-filtered human sewage is pumped into the sea.

It does not always wash back onto the beach but can pollute waters further out which is used by scuba divers and surfers.

The state of beaches is likely to deteriorate further as climate change substantially increase the amount of storm-related pollution swept into the sea.

Nearly 2,000 sewer overflows regularly fail during storms, polluting beaches and water by diverting untreated sewage directly into rivers and coastal waters.

Sea pollution is also increased by the large numbers of homes not connected to mains sewers.

Waste from these houses instead either goes into septic tanks or into rain-water run-offs that often flow into rivers and out into the sea.

Details about the risks of swimming in the sea are outlined in a new book, Sea Change, by Richard Girling, which is due to be published next month.

It follows a report in April that revealed that British beaches are nearly twice as dirty as they were 13 years ago.

The Marine Conservation Society Beachwatch survey painted a grim picture of a national shoreline covered in bottles, wrappers, cigarette butts and other waste.

It shows that levels are the highest since the survey began in 1994.

Nationally, the ten most common items found last year which accounted for more than 60 per cent of the total litter count were pieces of plastic, cotton bud sticks, sweet and crisp wrappers, polystyrene, plastic lids, rope, cigarette stubs, plastic drinks bottles and fishing nets. Other items include drink cans and plastic bags.

 

What's on today   What's on tomorrow

Receive our newsletter