KEY POINTS:
People in the Waikato District are being warned to stay away from shallow lakes that may contain the blue-green algae cyanobacteria. The algae is coming back with the warmer weather.
District Health Board Medical Officer Dell Hood says it can make people sick, and symptoms include vomiting, diarrhoea and allergic reactions like hayfever and asthma.
She says a few years back some cattle that drank from the lakes with the algae died.
Dell Hood says potentially the harm is enormous. If it is toxic enough to kill cattle, she says clearly it is a very big risk for a child.
She says people should avoid contact with lake water that looks cloudy-green or brown, or has scum forming.
- Newstalk ZB
