Guillaume Barucq is a general practitioner and municipal councilor in Biarritz. He has published
Detoxseafication and Surf Thérapie
(Surf Prevention editions).
It all started in the heart of summer 2020. A high attendance is expected at the beginning of August on the coast.
On the grounds of the risk of non-compliance with distances, an obligation to wear a mask has been introduced in the town center of a few seaside resorts.
And as it is only a short step from the city center to the beach, especially in Biarritz, the obligation to wear a mask has happily extended to the seaside.
We never imagined that the temporary municipal decrees taken by zealous newly elected mayors would turn into prefectural decrees renewed indefinitely, and even less that the mask wearing obligations would extend to the beaches!
Wearing a mask outdoors has become a more political measure than a health measure.
It is above all a flashy measure that gives a false sense of security.
A beach is also a hostile environment for a virus like SARS-CoV-2 which will be attacked by UV rays, heat and the salinity of the environment.
As long as we do not explain that we do not catch the Covid-19 in a current of sea air or by passing a person on a promenade, we will continue to suffer constraints that are more a matter of superstition than of right.
Over the months, studies have accumulated to clear the outdoors in general, and beaches in particular.
A recent large study in Ireland concluded that 99.9% of infections are acquired indoors.
For some mysterious reason, we get trapped in forcing visitors to the outside while it is inside that we should take the appropriate measures.
The beaches, long pointed out, are no longer considered to be areas at risk.
And for good reason, no cluster has been recorded in the world despite the record attendance last summer when beach attendants were touching their towels.
This all makes sense because contamination by an aerosol-transmitted virus is highly unlikely in these large ventilated spaces.
If viral particles venture there, they are instantly scattered like a puzzle in the sea air.
A beach is also a hostile environment for a virus like SARS-CoV-2 which will be attacked by UV rays, heat and the salinity of the environment.
Read also:
Masks, barrier gestures: what new civility after one year of Covid?
These studies only confirm what we have known for decades in France: the seaside helps prevent respiratory infections.
This knowledge contributed to the development of our seaside resorts before the era of tourism, with the construction of marine sanatoriums against tuberculosis, marine hospitals and thalassotherapy centers that dot our coasts.
Beyond the absence of a source of contamination, it is all the benefits of going to a beach without a mask that must be considered.
By its purity, its richness in mineral salts and trace elements (iodine of course but not only), sea air is ideal for the respiratory tract.
Its inhalation is recommended in various conditions ranging from asthma to cystic fibrosis through rhino-sinusitis.
Recent research finds antimicrobial substances there.
Seawater also has recognized effects in preventing infections that are contracted through the ENT sphere.
The unreserved inhalation of sea air should be recommended, especially since it also has positive effects on psychological well-being and muscle performance via its concentration of negative ions.
Iodine, of which a good part of the population is deficient, also has an action on the stimulation of the thyroid and the immune system.
Sun exposure helps stimulate the immune system.
Vitamin D in particular would be a protective factor.
The best way to synthesize it is through the skin via regular and reasoned sun exposure.
This is good because it is from the month of April that the sun is high enough to synthesize it well.
Ideally, you should expose yourself for a few minutes in the middle of the day, revealing as much skin as possible.
It is easy to understand that hiding half of his face with a mask unnecessarily deprives part of the production.
Read also:
Is the mask outdoors an effective means of fighting the epidemic?
Seawater also has recognized effects in preventing infections that are contracted through the ENT sphere.
One of the most effective preventive treatments to prevent the proliferation of pathogenic microbes in the nasal passages is seawater spray. Passing your head under a wave will pleasantly reproduce the effects ... provided you bathe without a mask of course!
Finally, we must not neglect the benefits of the seaside on mental and social health.
After a year of talking to each other behind a mask or video screens, people will need to see each other more than ever and the beach constitutes this space of freedom where we free ourselves from the constraints of clothing and superfluous accessories.
It is unacceptable that wearing a mask outdoors is neither debated nor adapted to the epidemiological realities of the territories and that it can be taken without a scientific basis.
In the 10 years that I have been raising awareness on the subject, I have never observed such a denial of the benefits of the marine environment.
It is partly linked to ignorance (medical climatology and hydrology are no longer taught in France) and to a certain form of arrogance in modern medicine: it is more learned to recommend the wearing of a mask. than a ventilation stay at the sea.
It is unacceptable that social measures as restrictive as wearing a mask outdoors are neither debated nor adapted to the epidemiological realities of the territories and that they can be taken without a scientific basis.
Today, we must take control of our health and return to the basics of which good oxygenation is a part.
Breathing without being hindered by a mask should remain a fundamental freedom, especially in natural spaces.
It sounds incredible to have to write this but we are living in a somewhat absurd time, and there is hope as the voices of the aerists are starting to be heard.
I hope that this forum will help mobilize all those like me who are convinced that the outdoors is a key to ending this health crisis.
So come to the beach this summer to breathe the sea air to the fullest!
