During two separate Karenia brevis red tide events, we measured the levels of brevetoxins in air and water samples, conducted personal interviews, and performed pulmonary function tests on people before and after they visited one of two Florida beaches. One hundred and twenty-nine people participated in the study, which we conducted during red tide events in Sarasota and Jacksonville, FL, USA. Exposure was categorized into three levels: low/no exposure, moderate exposure, and high exposure. Lower respiratory symptoms (e.g. wheezing) were reported by 8% of unexposed people, 11% of the moderately exposed people, and 28% of the highly exposed people.
This is the author’s version of a work accepted forpublication by Elsevier. Changes resulting from the publishing process, including peer review,editing, corrections, structural formatting and other quality control mechanisms, may not bereflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submittedfor publication. The definitive version has been published athttp://www.elsevier.com/locate/hal and may be cited as Backer, Lorraine C., Lora E. Fleming,Alan Rowan, Yung‐Sung Cheng, Janet Benson, Richard H. Pierce, Julia Zaias, Judy Bean,Gregory D. Bossart, David Johnson, Raul Quimbo, Daniel G. Baden (2003) Recreationalexposure to aerosolized brevetoxins during Florida red tide events, Harmful Algae 2(1):19–28 doi:10.1016/S1568-9883(03)00005-2
Florida Atlantic University. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute contribution #1511.