Algal Blooms and Human Health

  The Prevalence of Algal Blooms Nationally       The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) launched One Health Harmful Algal Bloom System (OHHABS) in 2016 to conduct surveillance of Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) events and to inform/prevent human and animal illnesses associated with them. 18 states reported 421 HAB events, 389 cases of human illness, and 413 cases of animal illness for the duration of 2016-2018. The reporting of data to OHHABS is voluntary, thus not all states are currently reporting and gaps in total number of cases/events exist due to a lack of formal data reporting by most states (Roberts et al., 2020).   (WHOI Report, 2021)      It is important to note that different algal species contribute to different HAB events around the United States; furthermore, they produce disparate toxins, and the resulting illnesses are just as distinct. Human and animal exposure can also take place in a variety of ways: aerosolized toxins, cons...

  What are algal blooms? Algae is an aquatic microorganism found in all bodies of water, it appears as green, brown, or red depending on the type (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), 2021). Like plants, they contain chlorophyll and photosynthesize using sunlight as energy. Algae and Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are important microorganisms since they produce more oxygen than the land plants. In addition, algae form the foundation of aquatic food webs supporting a wide range of animals. An acceptable amount of algae is always present in water and it is used to gauge the health of the stream or body of water since it responds to changes in the environment (mywaterquality.ca.gov, 2017). Algal blooms are excessive or rapid growth of the algae which can form a thick, foamy, or slimy layer on the surface of water. It smells bad, discolors the water and makes fish taste bad. This discourages people from drinking tap water and visiting beaches. The harmful alga...