Government officials in Spain are sorry for spraying bleach on a local beach after environmental groups slammed the decision, saying it can fatally harm wildlife.
According to the Daily Mail, "The decision was made by Agustín Conejo, a local official in Zahara de los Atunes, in the southern province of Cádiz."
To protect the children
The town sprayed a diluted bleach solution on more than two kilometers of beach. They used tractors that had long fumigation misters installed.
Zahara de los Atunes did this a day before Spain finally allowed children out of lockdown after six weeks due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Measures have allowed children under 14 years old to go out up to an hour.
Spain has over 217,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 119,000 recoveries and 25,000 deaths.
Conejo said the town sprayed bleach to protect minors and children from COVID-19, dissuading them from returning to the beach. Looking back, they acknowledged "the decision was a bad move."
The town sprayed "across the beach and nearby dunes," added the Daily Mail. This didn't stick well with environmental groups across Spain.
Strong opposition
María Dolores Iglesias Benítez told the Guardian, "It's totally absurd. "The beach is a living ecosystem. And when you spray it down with bleach, you're killing everything you come across."
She also pointed out seeing trucks run over nests full of eggs that belonged to the migratory birds that use the dunes for mating.
Iglesias Benitez heads an environmental volunteer group in Cadiz. She adds, "They have devastated the dune spaces and gone against all the rules," she added.
Greenpeace Spain said spraying bleach disrupts the mating season of birds and the invertebrates that support the local fishing ecosystem.
The group posted on Twitter that "it is happening in Zahara de los Atunes."
With bleach leaking out into the sea, provincial officials are considering fining the city but haven't decided on anything yet.
Bleach is meant for non-natural landscapes, such as city streets, roads, and other urban spaces. When used on something like a beach landscape, the Daily Mail said bleach "would have a genuinely destructive effect on the beach landscape, killing off even the insects."
Disinfectants should not be injected or consumed no matter what the circumstances, according to Dettol.
In a statement posted by RB, the manufacturer of household cleaning companies Lysol and Dettol, on the Daily Mail, it said, "As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)."
Bleach and other cleaning products should only be used according to their usage guidelines.
"I admit that it was a mistake, it was done with the best intention," Conejo said to the BBC.
