Beaches to stay open following salmonella confirmation

Galway Corporation has said there is no health threat from a strain of salmonella identified in bathing water in Galway Bay, and it does not intend to close public beaches.

Tests carried out by the Western Health Board for the local authority have confirmed contamination by salmonella in an area stretching from Salthill to Silver Strand at Barna, the bay's only blue-flag beach.

In a separate development, the health board has also identified the source of the separate strain of salmonella affecting 15 members of the Defence Forces at Renmore Barracks, Galway, last week. The source has been identified as orange mousse, but the precise ingredient is still unknown.

Samples of seawater taken at Blackrock, Salthill, on two dates in the past month by both the health board and independently by the local authority showed salmonella contamination, which is normally associated in water with untreated sewage and is not considered to be as dangerous as salmonella in food.

Hundreds of bathers have been using the area over the past week, and the only indication of any problem has been the removal of the blue flag from Silver Strand in the last few days. Under current regulations, responsibility rests with the local authority rather than the health board.

Results of the tests have been posted for public attention, as they were in breach of EU bathing regulations, the Galway city manager, Mr Joe Gavin, said.

The advice the local authority had been receiving was that the level was quite low, and did not require beach closure. It would not be advising people to stop swimming, he said.

Ms Karin Dubsky of Coastwatch Europe said that the local authority was obliged only to monitor and display results, but precise levels should be given and public warnings issued. Such warnings should be targeted at parents of young children swimming in the affected area who might ingest the water, she said.

Galway Bay's pollution problems, relating to untreated raw sewage, were highlighted during the controversy over the siting of a treatment plant on Mutton Island. Preliminary work on a £6.2 million causeway for the £23 million plant has already begun, following the recent Supreme Court hearing approving the project, and it is expected to have the plant running by 2002. An estimated eight million gallons of waste water is discharged daily into the bay of which about 60,000 gallons is sewage.

Medical opinion is divided on the effects of salmonella in water. In the 1950s a survey of polluted sea-water areas in Britain showed no increase in incidences of disease where people had been swimming. However, the US reported higher incidences of respiratory diseases in polluted areas. Normally, bugs associated with polluted water are of the coliform variety, such as E. coli, which can have serious consequences.

Results of tests relating to the recent outbreak of salmonella in food at Army barracks in Renmore, which resulted in 15 Army and FCA people being hospitalised, showed that the causative organism was salmonella typhirium, the Western Health Board said last night.

Nine people are in hospital following a suspected outbreak of salmonella in a north Clare seafood restaurant.

The Mid Western Health Board confirmed that it was investigating the incident after 28 people who dined in Monk's seafood restaurant in Ballyvaughan took ill last Tuesday night.

The proprietor closed the restaurant and was praised for his co-operation by the director of public health, Dr Kevin Kelleher.

The health board is already investigating a suspected outbreak of salmonella at Bunratty, Co Clare. Three people linked to a wedding reception at the Shannon Shamrock Hotel were admitted to hospital.