Tag Archives: Grand Strand

DHEC and Grand Strand partners launch CheckMyBeach.com

Leave a reply

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) has been working with various partners along the Grand Strand to develop an easy and informative way to provide beach swimming safety updates to beachgoers. This collaboration has led to the development of CheckMyBeach.com, a website for looking up helpful information like ocean water quality, swimming advisories, rip currents and more.

CheckMyBeach.com offers information about DHEC’s Beach Monitoring Program, which includes the weekly monitoring of fecal indicator bacteria, specifically Enterococcus, along South Carolina’s coast. If high levels of these bacteria are detected, which usually happens after heavy rains wash contaminants into the ocean, a short-term swimming advisory is issued for that particular spot – but the entire beach is not affected. CheckMyBeach.com links to DHEC’s information on current ocean water sampling results and swimming advisories, and it also provides localized news and updates about Grand Strand area beaches.

DHEC and its partners are excited for the new ways CheckMyBeach.com will keep residents and visitors updated about their favorite beaches. We’re working to spread the word about this new resource in the Grand Strand for the summer of 2020 (Phase I) and looking to expand that effort with new partners to promote CheckMyBeach.com for all of South Carolina’s beaches the following summer (Phase II). In addition to promotion through local media, hospitality and tourism groups, social media and signage at beach access point points, CheckMyBeach.com is the focus of four community “roadshows” in March to help inform the public of this great new information tool. Please see the details below – we hope you can attend!

NOTE: The event on Wednesday, March 18, is available only via YouTube, available following the event at https://www.youtube.com/user/SCDHEC. All future previously-scheduled CheckMyBeach.com roadshow events have been postponed.

Wednesday, March 4
5 p.m.-7 p.m.
North Myrtle Beach City Hall (1018 Second Ave S., North Myrtle Beach)

Wednesday, March 11
5 p.m.-7 p.m.
Myrtle Beach Train Depot (851 Broadway St., Myrtle Beach)

Wednesday, March 18
Virtual CheckMyBeach.com Presentation
12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
Video available on YouTube following the event

Monday, March 30 The final CheckMyBeach.com event has been postponed.
5 p.m.-7 p.m.
Surfside Beach Council Chambers (1115 U.S. Highway 17, North Surfside Beach)

DHEC in the News: Community baby showers, swimming advisory, heart disease

Leave a reply

Here’s a look at health and environmental news from around South Carolina.

Community baby shower draws 100 expectant mothers

Sequoia Rivers waited outside of the Palmetto Electric community room in Ridgeland on Friday, anxious to enter the community baby shower being hosted by Sen. Margie Bright Matthews in partnership with Molina Healthcare of South Carolina.

Rivers, a Ridgeland resident, who is expecting her fourth child, has twins and a 7-year-old child. She said she attended to get the most up-to-date information about what opportunities are available for expectant mothers.

SCDHEC lifts swimming advisory for North Myrtle, Surfside

A temporary ban on swimming along portions of the Grand Strand coast has been lifted, South Carolina Department of Health and Environment Control announced Friday afternoon.

General Interest

Limited health literacy is a major barrier to heart disease prevention and treatment

Limited healthy literacy is a major barrier blocking many people from achieving good cardiovascular health or benefiting from effective treatment for heart attacks, heart failure, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases, according to a scientific statement published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.

Health literacy encompasses not only the ability to read, but skills such as being able to ask questions about your care, understand documents with medical terminology, perform the basic arithmetic needed to take medication correctly and negotiate with health care providers and insurance companies. Inability to do these things effectively can have serious health consequences.

DHEC in the News: Life-saving pediatric equipment, DHEC nutrition classes, swim advisory

Leave a reply

Here’s a look at health and environmental news from around South Carolina.

Berkeley County EMS Receives Life-Saving Pediatric Equipment

MONCKS CORNER, S.C.–Helping children in an emergency just got a little easier thanks to new pediatric equipment Berkeley County EMS received on Wednesday.

Thanks to a donation through Charleston’s 9/11 Heroes Run and a DHEC EMS grant, the agency was able to purchase the Handtevy System.

“With their support, we were able to purchase this life-saving equipment for our pediatric population,” Berkeley County EMS posted on Facebook.

North Branch Library hosting SCDHEC nutrition classes through January

NORTH – The aromas wafting through the North Branch Library on Aug. 24 made visitors think they were in a fine dining restaurant.

The reason for the tantalizing smells was a South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control nutrition class that was underway there.

Each month for the next five months, North Branch Library and SCDHEC will team up to offer the nutrition classes at the library.

Swim advisory issued for part of North Myrtle Beach area

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A section of beach along South Carolina’s Grand Strand has been placed under a temporary swimming advisory, the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) reported today.

DHEC in the News: S.C. Adopt-A-Stream Program, Swim Advisories, Opiods

Leave a reply

Here’s a look at health and environmental news from around South Carolina.

Edisto group backs S.C. Adopt-A-Stream program

Edisto River conservationists are supporting recently announced efforts by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and Clemson, who said this month, they are partnering to form the South Carolina Adopt-a-Stream (or SCAAS) program.

S.C. DHEC and Clemson’s Center for Watershed Excellence said in a news release the program will closely mirror the Georgia Adopt-a-Stream program, on in which several volunteer organizations in South Carolina have already been utilizing to monitor and record water quality in the streams and rivers around the state.

Several Grand Strand beach access points under swim advisories for July 4th holiday

If you’re thinking about heading to the Grand Strand for the July 4th holiday, you may want to pay close attention if your plans include a visit to the beach.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) reports several beach access points from Garden City to Atlantic Beach are currently impacted by long-term swimming advisories.

Impacted beach areas will have signs posted, discouraging swimming within 200 feet of either side of the sign.

South Carolina one of 10 states with lowest hospitalizations from opioid abuse

The opioid epidemic is sweeping hospitals across the country, but South Carolina hospitals have so far escaped the brunt of it, according to a report by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. 

At the end of 2014, the last year for which data is available, Maryland had about three times the number of opioid-related emergency room visits than South Carolina did. Maryland has struggled with heroin overdoses, a problem that exists in South Carolina to a lesser degree.