Another mysterious beach incident

[PrettyShiningPeople]

So for the third time in as many years, there’s been an incident on on a southern UK beach causing people to feel unwell but where no known cause has been identified.

I just find it bizarre that the authorities shrug their shoulders without really trying to find out what the hell is going on. Fumes from passing ships had been suggested, but it seems they’ve really no idea.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/25/emergency-services-called-essex-seaside-reports-people-coughing/amp/

I was on a beach in Northumberland yesterday and there was a slight eggy smell near the water. Nobody appeared to be being affected by it.
Apparently this could be as a result of hydrogen sulphide from rotting seaweed, which had been a serious issue on beaches in Brittany this year where swimmers have actually died.
Could this be a more likely cause, albeit on a smaller, less toxic scale?
Did anyone on any beaches yesterday experience anything similar?

Lurking as it's really interesting.

Place marking as we were in the area yesterday when this happened. DS started coughing and another child walking behind us was also coughing and OH said said it was strange that the two of them were coughing. Nether me, OH or DD had any problems.

It was only as we were coming home and listening to the radio that we realised there was an incident.

it's very interesting and scary.
iirc it was always on hot days. so algea could be a cause but other fumes are also more volatile in the heat.
any lost shipping containers or wrecks in the area?

Hmmm. The situation in Brittany is only being discussed openly after twenty years of a hush up.

@orangeshoebox re lost shipping containers.
In the comments section of one news article, someone said:

“Over twenty years ago there were newspaper reports of huge tanks containing permethrin and lindane being lost overboard from a freighter in the channel. I never saw a follow up saying they've been found. Apart from them and wartime munitions what else is rusting away down there?”

Found it:
www.newscientist.com/article/mg12216580-400-lindane-lost-in-the-channel/

Hmmm Cap de la Hague quite far away though..

And now an unidentified substance in the sea off the north east coast ....

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/roker-whitley-bay-sea-substance-16818248?fbclid=IwAR0ZAcCzS2UgnLWkCATAu-LHtQHbun_rG7KjbzsZhrKfVbPX15gN9Zu1Ohw

@PrettyShiningPeople
"Hmmm Cap de la Hague quite far away though.."
Not sure that matters too much. DF ex-Navy and my degree in this area (coastal stuff). My DF found broken boat wreckage washed up on a beach that'd been capsized 3 years previously. Another whole story behind that
My point is is that there are global currents that pick things up and deposit at certain spots. It's why some beaches are pebbly and some sandy (now THAT'S my academic t

*academic training!

Oh - and possibly of no relevance - BUT when that factory in France that makes the "smell" added to Natural Gas caught fire - I could smell it sometimes at home hundreds of miles away in England.

So no obvious cause found. What next....have they just given up? Bit of a worry!....

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-49637400