Impacts of Anthropogenic and Natural Disaster on Risks to Coastal Recreational Beach Use
Abstract
Beaches and coastal residential areas are vulnerable to anthropogenic and natural disasters. Disasters of the past decade that have impacted the coastal regions of the U.S. southeast Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico (GoM) have included very notably the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Oil Spill of April 2010 impacting over 200 kilometers of the GoM coastline, and Hurricane's Irma (impacting the Florida Keys) and Maria (impacting Puerto Rico) during September 2017. All of these disasters resulted in the redistribution of contaminants that required management decisions to minimize public health impacts. Three case studies are presented that address critical data gaps in evaluating health risks from the redistribution of contaminants as a result of disasters. Case #1: In terms of the DWH oil spill, data have been lacking in terms of child beach play activities needed to assess exposure to low levels of oil spill compounds. Case #2: Following Hurricane Irma, intermittent levels of fecal indicator bacteria were observed at beaches many weeks after the storm presumably due to clean up activities at debris staging areas. Case #2: After Hurricane Maria, chemical contaminants were redistributed within a bay impacted by industrial contamination potentially resulting in increased exposures to arsenic and recalcitrant organic compounds. This presentation will address methodologies used in each study to assess the data gaps required to quantify human health risk. Every disaster will present its own challenges. Overall, studies collectively show that pre-planning, contaminant remediation, and research focused on data gaps prior to the disaster are important components of minimizing public health impacts during and immediately after disasters.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMGH13C1063S
- Keywords:
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- 0240 Public health;
- GEOHEALTH;
- 0299 General or miscellaneous;
- GEOHEALTH;
- 4322 Health impact;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4327 Resilience;
- NATURAL HAZARDS