Pollution linked to medical costs

Andrew Edwards

A study, led by UC Irvine doctoral student Ryan Dwight, concluded

that pollution-related illnesses suffered by swimmers visiting

Newport Beach and Huntington Beach beaches could run as high as $3.3

million per year in medical costs.

The report synthesized analysis from other studies. Dwight cited a

report published in 1998 that assessed the severity of illnesses

contracted by swimmers in the United Kingdom and a study published in

2003 that estimated the number of gastrointestinal diseases

contracted by people using Newport and Huntington beaches over a

two-year period.

“It’s putting together things from two different boxes to create a

third,” Dwight said.

The study was released Monday and published in the Internet

version of the Journal of Environmental Management. Dwight conducted

his research while pursuing a doctoral degree in environmental health

science, which he earned in 2001. His interest in water quality and

health stretches back to 1997.

“I was living in Newport Beach, and I was a brand new graduate

student at UC Irvine,” Dwight said. “I was looking for a dissertation

topic, and I’m a surfer, and I kept getting ill.”

Some local water-quality experts questioned Dwight’s decision to

mingle United Kingdom data with an Orange County study.

“It’s really difficult to compare areas like that and make

assumptions,” Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said.

Epidemiological studies are better when they focus on a single

area, Kiff said. However, Kiff did credit Dwight and his team for

finding a connection between water quality and private healthcare

expenses.

“It shows people that there’s a link between clean water and

medical costs,” Kiff said.

Dwight estimated that gastrointestinal diseases cost infected

swimmers $36.58 per illness. Acute respiratory infections have $76.76

price tag, and ear and eye illnesses have an estimated tab of $37.86

and $27.31, respectively.

Local water quality activist Jack Skinner questioned that

calculation. He said the study of United Kingdom waters tested areas

where sewage is discharged near the beach. Near Newport and

Huntington beaches, runoff can travel down the Santa Ana River

channel to the beach, but sewage is discharged about 4 1/2 miles

offshore.

“You worry about runoff, right, but that’s not as hazardous as

sewage contamination,” Skinner said.

The United Kingdom study is the only published report on how

severely people can get sick in recreational waters, Dwight said.

Dwight believes his study works because gastrointestinal illness

rates are based on an Orange County study and that germs would have

the same affects on people wherever they live.

“There’s no reason to think a person from the United Kingdom, when

they contract a gastrointestinal illness, would be sick longer or

less than people from the United States,” he said.

People can get sick when water is contaminated with viruses found

in human feces, Skinner said. Scientists test for bacteria to

indicate how many viruses may be in the water. But Skinner believes

that method could lead to an overestimation of illness at local

beaches since the separation of sewage from runoff means bacteria

testing could indicate lower virus levels than waters where sewage

and runoff are mixed.

Skinner said the health care costs estimated by Dwight may be too

high. Orange County Sanitation District lab supervisor Charlie McGee

and Orange County Health Care Agency spokesman Larry Honeybourne

agreed.

“How that cost was calculated may not be as accurate as it could

be for the West Coast,” McGee said.

However, Bob Caustin, founder of Defend the Bay, a Newport Beach

water quality organization, said Dwight’s estimated healthcare costs

could be too low. Dwight agreed with Caustin that the number could be

higher if the study included data on children who get sick.

“Babies don’t have the immune systems, and they’re also the ones

to open their mouths to take a swig,” Caustin said.