Florida red tide and human health: A pilot beach conditions reporting system to minimize human exposure

Abstract

With over 50% of the US population living in coastal counties, the ocean and coastal environments have substantial impacts on coastal communities. While may of the impacts are positive, such as tourism and recreation opportunities, there are also negative impacts, such as exposure to harmful algal blooms (HABs) and water borne pathogens. Recent advances in environmental monitoring and weather prediction may allow us to forecast these potential adverse effects and thus mitigate the negative impact from coastal environmental threats.One example of the need to mitigate adverse environmental impacts occurs on Florida's west coast, which experiences annual blooms, or periods of exuberant growth, of the toxic dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis. K. brevis produces a suite of potent neurotoxins called brevetoxins. Wind and wave action can break up the cells, releasing toxin that can then become part of the marine aerosol or sea spray. Brevetoxins in the aerosol cause respiratory irritation in people who inhale it. In addition, asthmatics who inhale the toxins report increase upper and lower airway lower symptoms and experience measurable changes in pulmonary function. Real-time reporting of the presence or absence of these toxic aerosols will allow asthmatics and local coastal residents to make informed decisions about their personal exposures, thus adding to their quality of life.A system to protect public health that combines information collected by an Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) has been designed and implemented in Sarasota and Manatee Counties, Florida. This system is based on real-time reports from lifeguards at the eight public beaches. The lifeguards provide periodic subjective reports of the amount of dead fish on the beach, apparent level of respiratory irritation among beach-goers, water color, wind direction, surf condition, and the beach warning flag they are flying.A key component in the design of the observing system was an easy reporting pathway for the lifeguards to minimize the amount of time away from their primary duties. Specifically, we provided

Regulation of the immune system by biodiversity from the natural environment: An ecosystem service essential to health

“…Interestingly, an organism that is not harmless provides proof of physiologically significant levels of intake of marine aerosols and their contained life forms. There is rapid (<1 h) onset of symptoms of brevetoxin poisoning while walking on beaches during algal blooms (97) and parallel increases in pulmonary problems at some distance inland from such beaches (98).…”

Toxicology, Environmental Health, and the “One Health” Concept

“…The Florida Red Tide program has piloted an early detection system in which lifeguards monitor beaches for dead fish, dead animals, and skin and respiratory irritation among beachgoers. The lifeguards report any instances to a central system that issues public health warnings based on this information [9]. The National Center for Environmental Health, in collaboration with partner organizations, created and maintains a unique surveillance system-the HABrelated Illness Surveillance System-to capture human and animal health data, as well as physical characteristics of HABs in a single database [10].…”

Integration of Data for Nowcasting of Harmful Algal Blooms

“…To monitor this risk, the Beach Conditions system involves a professional lifeguard corps communicating with a central computer using email-enabled cell phones [7]. The phones are programmed so that the lifeguard can quickly enter reports twice daily on coughing frequency, watercolor, wind direction, relative wave height, and presence of rip currents.…”

“…This forecast is evaluated with lifeguard reports of the impact [7]. The HAB field cannot be determined to finer scale than 30-60 km, about the length of a county, so the forecast is made at that scale.…”

“…These types of sensors should be considered a priority in configuring moorings in key sites to complement the higher resolution "manual" sampling. [33], the Beach Conditions system [7].…”