Regarding health symptoms that may be associated with HABs, reporting of HAB-related illness is voluntary. New York State DOH and DEC collect information on HABs and HAB-associated illness to help prevent further illnesses and improve understanding of how HABs affect human health, animal health and the environment.
If you are experiencing health symptoms that may be associated with exposure to a harmful algal bloom (HAB), the first priority is to seek medical attention for your symptoms. If the illness is potentially HAB-related, you can also report your symptoms to your local health department or NYSDOH (harmfulalgae@health.ny.gov).
In any case, the links below will help answer many of your questions. You can and should inform yourself about harmful algal blooms and learn how to protect yourself from them, how to report a bloom to DEC, and how to report a HAB-associated illness to your LHD or NYS DOH.
NYS DEC has some great resources and information for the public on harmful algal blooms, many of which can be found on our HAB resource page here.
