Editor’s note: NEHA strives to provide up-to-date and relevant information on environmental health and to build part­ nerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we feature a column from the Environmental Health Services Branch (EHSB) of the Centers for Disease Con­ trol and Prevention (CDC) in every issue of the Journal. In this column, EHSB and guest au­ thors from across CDC will ...

Recreational and potable water supplies polluted with human wastewater can pose a direct health risk to humans. Therefore, sensitive detection of human fecal pollution in environmental waters is very important to water quality authorities around the globe. Microbial source tracking (MST) utilizes human fecal markers (HFMs) to detect human wastewater pollution in environmental waters. The concen...

Bacteroides spp. has gained substantial interest among the suggested potential candidates for alternative faecal indicators for untreated recreational waters by the US EPA. Interest in Bacteroides as a faecal indicator is based upon the relative abundance of selected members of the Bacteroides genus in the human colon and human faeces. In this study, we developed a real-time PCR detection syste...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important opportunistic pathogen in recreational waters and the primary cause of hot tub folliculitis and otitis externa. The aim of this surveillance study was to determine the background prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profile of P. aeruginosa in swimming pools and hot tubs. A convenience sample of 108 samples was obtained from three hot tubs and eight ind...

Decay rates in coastal water and sediment for the bacterial pathogens Salmonella typhimurium and S. derby were compared in laboratory-based microcosms with results previously obtained for a number of faecal indicators. In general, the decay rates of Salmonella spp. were greater than either enterococci or coliphage in overlying water and sediment. Decay rates of E. coli were similar to Salmonell...