ATLANTA — You may want to pause and read this before you go splashing into the ocean water.
The Environment America Research & Policy Center released a study analyzing the amount of bacteria found in the water from beaches in 29 coastal and Great Lakes States, as well as Puerto Rico.
Data from the study uncovered that an estimated 2,600 beach sites of the roughly 4,500 tested - or more than half - were found to be "potentially unsafe for swimming" on at least one day of 2018.
Here are Georgia's top five "dirtiest" beaches, according to the report:
5. Jekyll Driftwood Beach - 2 days
4. Tybee Island near Polk Street - 3 days
3. Kings Ferry - 3 days
2. Skidaway Narrows - 3 days
1. St. Simons Island Lighthouse - 6 days
Beach water, the study said, can become contaminated primarily because of fecal matter, which can be washed into beaches because of urban runoff, sewage leaks and livestock operations.
That contaminated water that beachgoers come into contact with can then result in gastrointestinal illness, respiratory diseases, ear and eye infections and rashes on the skin.
Gulf Coast beaches were deemed to be unsafe the most in 2018, according to the study - nearly 85 percent of the beaches tested there were unsafe on at least one day.
East Coast beaches, on the other hand, were the "safest." Only 48 percent of beaches tested were deemed unsafe on at least one day, the lowest for all the coasts.
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