“The sea washes away all evil,” said the Greek dramatist Euripides, who withdrew to write his plays on the island of Salamis in a cave with a beautiful view of the sea. Then, in the 17th century, English physicians began touting sea bathing and coastal walks as health-promoting, and by the mid-18th century, spa baths and sea air were well-known as health-enhancing measures among wealthier citizens in Europe.
As part of an EU project in which the opportunities and risks of oceans for human health are being researched, the scientists led by Sandra Geiger from the Environmental Psychology working group at the University of Vienna surveyed more than 15,000 people in 14 European countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany , France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, Czech Republic) and Australia were asked about their opinion on various sea activities and their health.
“It’s amazing that we see such uniform and clear patterns in all 15 countries. Everyone seems to benefit from the proximity to the sea, not just the wealthy,” Geiger summarized the results in a broadcast. “The frequency of visits to the coast is positively associated with better health status, regardless of income,” the scientists write in their paper. Geiger emphasizes to the APA that health is dependent on many different factors and that the sea is “one of those many factors, but not a panacea”.
However, the sea cannot reduce prevailing health inequalities between high and low incomes. “For policymakers, the results suggest that public access to coasts can offer clear health benefits,” the study authors emphasize. However, they should not expect that this will reduce existing inequalities unless policies target low-income groups.
Geiger emphasizes that residents of landlocked countries could also benefit at least in part from the sea, for example when they spend their holidays there. She also assumes a similarly strong connection between freshwater bodies such as lakes and ponds and better health. In order to substantiate this, the environmental psychology working group is currently investigating the connection between inland waters and health in a follow-up study in Austria.
(S E R V I C E – Internet: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00818-1)