title: Regional public health cost estimates of contaminated coastal waters: a case study of gastroenteritis at southern California beaches.
abstract: We present estimates of annual public health impacts, both illnesses and cost of illness, attributable to excess gastrointestinal illnesses caused by swimming in contaminated coastal waters at beaches in southern California. Beach-specific enterococci densities are used as inputs to two epidemiological dose-response models to predict the risk of gastrointestinal illness at 28 beaches spanning 160 km of coastline in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. We use attendance data along with the health cost of gastrointestinal illness to estimate the number of illnesses among swimmers and their likely economic impact. We estimate that between 627,800 and 1,479,200 excess gastrointestinal illnesses occur at beaches in Los Angeles and Orange Counties each year. Using a conservative health cost of gastroenteritis, this corresponds to an annual economic loss of dollars 21 or dollars 51 million depending upon the underlying epidemiological model used (in year 2000 dollars). Results demonstrate that improving coastal water quality could result in a reduction of gastrointestinal illnesses locally and a concurrent savings in expenditures on related health care costs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Environmental Science and Engineering Program, 46-071A Center for Health Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles 90095-1772, USA.
authors.forename: Suzan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Given
authors.forename: Linwood H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Pendleton
authors.forename: Alexandria B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Boehm
mesh_terms: D001493:Bathing Beaches; D002140:California; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004777:Environment; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D011998:Recreation; D013550:Swimming; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014873:Water Pollutants; D014876:Water Pollution
chemical_list: D014873:Water Pollutants