Report Highlights Poop Problem at Lebanon’s Beaches

Considering going to the beach this summer?

Think again.

A test conducted by the Environment and Development Magazine reported that 19 areas along the Lebanese coast were analyzed for fecal matter, and that of them, seven areas were classified as completely unsafe for swimming and “well above international safety limits.” Two other areas were reported as “borderline unsafe for swimming.”

The full results of the study will be revealed next month, but The Daily Star published details on the results Monday, stating that “samples from swimming areas in Ramlet al-Baida, Antelias and Jbeil contained so many fecal coliforms laboratory scientists stopped counting” and “samples in Mina and Sidon came back borderline toxic.”

(Photo via The Daily Star)

Solution? Don’t even think of going near Ramlet El-Baida, Nahr el-Kalb, Jounieh, Antelias-Dbayeh, Shmeil Public Pool of Jbeil, Tabarja, and El-Ouza3i to swim.

And before you turn to swimming pools as the answer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently conducted a test on 161 public swimming pools in the US (just to give you an idea of what you might be able to expect in an average pool) and found that a whopping 58 percent of pools had signs of E. coli.

Still, it’s summer and we all want to swim. So instead of choosing a random beach or pool out of convenience, check out our list of beaches here and pick a clean one. Because nobody wants to swim in fecal matter.