Tip, The Intrepid Photographer, didn't see people stop and read the rules and regulations posted at entrances to beaches in Ocean Grove and Bradley Beach this afternoon. If they were walking along the boardwalk from one town through the other and they did stop, they'd have seen a distinct difference in content. While both towns post basic information about hours of
operation, safety, the weather, ocean temperature, and the tide, Bradley Beach also urges bathers not to wash diapers in bathing water and not to go in the water if they have or recently had diarrhea or "signs or symptoms of stomach disease," which are unspecified.
On the other hand, Ocean Grove posts quotes from Scripture. Today's quote was Psalm 119:105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." The beach is run by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association. The town was founded in 1869 as a Methodist Church camp meeting.
Ocean Grove also includes a safety rule for digging holes in the sand: "Holes dug in the sand may not be deeper than the knees of the smallest participant - holes may not exceed 12" deep - holes must be filled in."
Regulating the beach tradition of digging holes in the sand might sound trite, but a study printed in the June 21, 2007 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine detailed the potential of dry-sand tunnels to cause sudden death when they collapsed. According to the study, "Sudden Death from Collapsing Sand Holes," by Bradley A. Maron, M.D., Tammy S. Haas, R.N., and Barry J. Maron, M.D., the average age of the 31 victims in the study was 12. In July 2012, a 12-year-old Ocean Township boy died after the tunnel he was digging on a beach in Long Branch collapsed on him.
The authors of the study said the risk of a sand hole collapse was "enormously deceptive because of its association with relaxed recreational settings not generally regarded as hazardous."
"Raising awareness on the part of the general public of the risk associated with creating tenuous excavations in dry sand should have a preventive effect," the authors said.
Meanwhile, Bradley Beach's concern with swimmers bathing while in the throes of gastrointestinal distress is nothing to sneeze at, either. High levels of bacteria found in human waste closed beaches in Ocean Grove and Spring Lake around Memorial Day weekend, in incidences likely triggered not by humans using the ocean for a potty but by storm water runoff after heavy rain. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's website, contact with fecal-polluted water can result in assorted gastrointestinal symptoms, including vomiting and diarrhea, as well as rashes and flu-like symptoms.
So no matter what beach you go to this summer, you might want to stop and read the sign posted at that entrance to the sand. You don't want to spend vacation or a day off from work in the emergency room.
Ocean Grove also includes a safety rule for digging holes in the sand: "Holes dug in the sand may not be deeper than the knees of the smallest participant - holes may not exceed 12" deep - holes must be filled in."
Regulating the beach tradition of digging holes in the sand might sound trite, but a study printed in the June 21, 2007 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine detailed the potential of dry-sand tunnels to cause sudden death when they collapsed. According to the study, "Sudden Death from Collapsing Sand Holes," by Bradley A. Maron, M.D., Tammy S. Haas, R.N., and Barry J. Maron, M.D., the average age of the 31 victims in the study was 12. In July 2012, a 12-year-old Ocean Township boy died after the tunnel he was digging on a beach in Long Branch collapsed on him.
The authors of the study said the risk of a sand hole collapse was "enormously deceptive because of its association with relaxed recreational settings not generally regarded as hazardous."
"Raising awareness on the part of the general public of the risk associated with creating tenuous excavations in dry sand should have a preventive effect," the authors said.
Meanwhile, Bradley Beach's concern with swimmers bathing while in the throes of gastrointestinal distress is nothing to sneeze at, either. High levels of bacteria found in human waste closed beaches in Ocean Grove and Spring Lake around Memorial Day weekend, in incidences likely triggered not by humans using the ocean for a potty but by storm water runoff after heavy rain. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's website, contact with fecal-polluted water can result in assorted gastrointestinal symptoms, including vomiting and diarrhea, as well as rashes and flu-like symptoms.
So no matter what beach you go to this summer, you might want to stop and read the sign posted at that entrance to the sand. You don't want to spend vacation or a day off from work in the emergency room.
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