Beach Pollution Effects on Health and Productivity in California.

Jingjing Li,Xiaohan Zhang

doi:10.3390/ijerph16111987

Abstract

The United States (U.S.) Clean Water Act triggered over $1 trillion in investments in water pollution abatement. However, treated sewage discharge and untreated runoff water that are contaminated by fecal matter are discharged into California beach waters daily. Warnings are posted to thwart the public from contacting polluted coastal water, according to the California Code of Regulations (CCR). This paper evaluated the current policy by empirically examining the productivity loss, in the form of sick leave, which is caused by fecal-contaminated water along the California coast under the CCR. The findings of this study showed that Californians suffer productivity losses in the amount of 3.56 million sick leave days per year due to recreational beach water pollution. This paper also empirically examined the pollution-to-sickness graph that Cabelli’s classic study theoretically proposed. The results of the research assure that the existing water quality thresholds are still reasonably safe and appropriate, despite the thresholds being based on studies from the 1950s. The weakness of the CCR lies in its poor enforcement or compliance. Better compliance, in terms of posting pollution advisories and increasing public awareness regarding beach pollution effects on health, would lead to a significant decrease in sick leaves and a corresponding increase in productivity. Therefore, this study advocates for stronger enforcement by displaying pollution advisories and better public awareness of beach pollution effects on health.

Highlights

California beaches attract 23 million residents and 150 million tourists each year [1,2]
The first column presents the simple bivariate relationship between beach pollution and sick leave. This regression only uses the observations from the months during which there was local beach pollution that was determined by the monthly Geometric Mean (GM) threshold
The coefficient that was reported in Column (iv) indicates that, if 100% of the local beachline has a pollution level above the monthly GM threshold of 35 cfu/100 mL, sick leave rises by 0.9 percentage points

Summary

Introduction

California beaches attract 23 million residents and 150 million tourists each year [1,2]. Large volumes of treated sewage discharge and polluted runoff water flow into the California coastline through storm drains, which are adjacent to many frequently visited California beaches. Treated sewage discharge has a significant amount of pathogens, despite its treatment [4]. Substantial amounts of human and animal fecal matter is frequently released into the marine coastal waters. Such urban runoff pollution has a strong negative impact on the water quality of California’s coastal water, estuaries, and bays [5,6]

Objectives

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion