Children who drink seawater while swimming at risk of illness

Sickness among children after they swim on a beach could be due to drinking seawater while swimming.

A common negligence on the part of beachgoers-parents is they do not notice that their children often drink seawater while swimming, which can cause serious health problems, a senior municipal official told Gulf News yesterday.

“This is a major mistake committed by parents who go for swimming with their children on the beaches. They often don’t take enough precautions to prevent it,” Abdul Aziz Hussni Zurub, Director of HSE (Health, safety and environment) at the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City.

He said seawater on the designated beaches in Abu Dhabi is clean and safe but it is not potable. Moreover a minor contamination may not go well with the children, Zurub said.

A doctor said drinking seawater can cause spontaneous diarrhoea in children. “Some parents come and say that their children took wrong food [causing diarrhoea] but when they reveal they have been to the beach, we sometimes find that it was due to drinking seawater,” Dr Veena Promod, General Practitioner at Oxford Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi, told Gulf News on Sunday.

Salt content in seawater can cause nausea also, she said. It may cause spontaneous cough too. If the seawater enters the windpipe, it can sometimes cause breathing problems in children, the doctor warned.

The municipal official said the most important thing to prevent this and other mishaps is for parents to talk to children about beach safety.

“They must ensure that children are wearing floats all the time while swimming. Children must also be supervised all the time,” Zurub said

Families must take enough precautions against heatstroke. While sitting on the beach they have to wear sunglasses and creams, and drink enough fluids, he said.

Moreover, children should know to recognise and stay away from harmful creatures, including jelly fish, the official said.

The Municipality has been running campaigns to raise awareness about the safety on the beaches. A campaign on Al Bateen Beach reached out to 2,500 people on Friday, Zurub said.

The Municipality and other authorities such as Abu Dhabi Police and Civil Defence Department have distributed printed awareness materials to the public.