Picture yourself at the beach, waves crashing, salty air on your face. What’s that smell?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
That fresh ocean breeze might not be as clean as you think.
Enter Matthew Pendergraft and team from University of California San Diego. They studied coastal waters near the US-Mexico border. Using DNA sequencing and chemical detection tools, they tracked what was in the water and in the air above it.
What’d they find? Sewage-associated bacteria not only in ocean water, but also in sea mist. These bacteria work their way from sewers into the coastal air we breathe.
So be careful, what goes into the ocean may come right back to us.
Pendergraft, M. A., Belda-Ferre, P., Petras, D., Morris, C. K., Mitts, B. A., Aron, A. T. et al. Bacterial and chemical evidence of coastal water pollution from the Tijuana River in sea spray aerosol. Environ Sci Technol 57, 4071–4081 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c02312