Ah, the happy days of summer: frolicking in the waves and basking on the beach (responsibly sun-screened, of course) while the kids dig in the sand. Maybe you’ll even build a sandcastle yourself, throw off the cares of the world for a while.
But wait. Such play, scientists have found, puts people at risk for subsequent stomach cramping and diarrhea because of fecal bacteria on the shore. Safer to walk along the beach or go in the water.
In a survey of 27,000 visitors to ocean and freshwater beaches, 13 percent of those who said they’d dug in sand during a visit to a beach reported gastrointestinal problems when interviewed 10 to 12 days later.
As for those who were buried in sand, their rate was even higher: 23 percent.
The study, by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Environmental Protection Agency, was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
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