title: Do 2006/7/EC European Union Bathing Water Standards exclude the risk of contact with Salmonella or Candida albicans?
abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of the recent (2006) European Union Directive concerning the management of bathing water quality to exclude the presence of pathogens from complying waters. Coastal water samples were classified according to the Directive. 2.5% of 'excellent' water contained Salmonella and 39.2% Candida albicans 11.8% of samples in category 'good' were Salmonella positive and 35.2% were C.albicans positive. When the USEPA criterion for marine waters was applied to the same dataset, fewer samples complied, however 6.0% of the complying samples contained Salmonella. The results suggest that the bacterial indicator threshold levels for marine recreational water quality of the 2006/7/EC European Union Directive do not fully exclude contact of bathers with dangerous pathogens. Enterococci, if used as the sole index, appear to form a more reliable proxy of the risk of contact with Salmonella.
authors.affiliation: Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean, University Hill, Mytilene 811 00, Greece. efstratiou@aegean.gr
authors.forename: Maria A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Efstratiou
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tsirtsis
mesh_terms: D001493:Bathing Beaches / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002177:Candidiasis / Q000517:prevention & control; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005062:European Union; D006115:Greece; D017408:Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D011634:Public Health / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012475:Salmonella / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012480:Salmonella Infections / Q000517:prevention & control; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*; D014871:Water Microbiology / Q000592:standards*; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence