Green Daily

Just in time for the end of beach season, the EPA has decided to modify the way that it regulates which beaches are safe to swim in and which aren't. (By the way, environmentalists forced this modification by suing the agency-nice to see some sort of activist success story out there.)

Right now, the EPA determines whether or not a beach is safe to swim at based only on whether or not swimming there will cause gastrointestinal ailments. (Not a good way to spend a vacation, as you might be able to imagine.) The lawsuit's success means that the agency will now have to come up with a set of rules that also take other potential beach-born diseases into account. In case you didn't know, swimming in the ocean could also result in hepatitis, skin rashes, ear infections and pink eye. (Hepatitis? That's a pretty big deal!)

Now that we'll have more information about the potential illnesses caused by swimming in the ocean, maybe we'll also begin to wake up and realize that our oceans aren't too healthy themselves...