|  | Diet Nutrition | Healthy Eating

Why Is Ocean Water Bad to Drink?

Many schoolchildren are familiar with the famous lines, "Water, water everywhere, but nary a drop to drink," which is from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 19th century poem "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." The narrator laments the irony of being stranded at sea, unable to drink seawater. But is this situation factual as well as poetic? The human body contains salt as well as water. Nonetheless, the particular concentrations of these components in ocean water make it unsuitable for human consumption, according to the U.S. National Ocean Service.

  1. Salt in Ocean Water

    • The U.S. Geological Survey classifies ocean water as "highly saline," meaning it contains a great deal of salt by weight. Specifically, seawater is about 35,000 parts per million salt. By contrast, fresh water, which is safe to drink, contains less than 1,000 parts per million salt. This "salt" actually includes two compounds: sodium and chloride, according to Dr. J. Floor Anthoni, writing for the New Zealand educational nonprofit Seafriends.

    Salt in the Body

    • Some salt is essential to the proper functioning of the human body, for such processes as cell health, nutrient absorption and maintaining blood volume, according to a report for Oregon State's Linus Pauling Institute written by Jane Higdon. The salt used by the body is chemically similar to much of that in the ocean, NaCl, or sodium chloride. The recommended daily intake of salt for American adults is between 3 and 3.8 grams per day, depending on age and condition, yielding 1.2 to 1.5 grams of pure sodium per day.

    Lethal Effects of Drinking Ocean Water

    • The extreme saltiness of ocean water poses several problems for the body. Excessive salt consumption makes the cells dehydrate, an irony worthy of Coleridge's poem. This occurs because fluids leave cells in order to maintain the concentration of salt in the body. If the body continues to gain salt, the kidneys eventually fail because the cells can move only a certain amount of fluids, leaving the excess to be flushed by the kidneys.

    Other Effects of Drinking Ocean Water

    • In the short term, excessive consumption of salt causes non-lethal but uncomfortable problems. One obvious result is excessive urination, as the kidneys begin their work to rid the body of the extra salt. Worse, if you drink seawater, you may experience diarrhea, nausea and abdominal cramps. If the body's excess salt proceeds to result in dehydration, you may experience dizziness, fainting, inability to urinate, swelling, convulsions and difficulty breathing.

Healthy Eating - Related Articles