Authorities are defending the handling of changed public health advice relating to South Australia's algal bloom, amid ongoing warnings to asthmatics about contaminated sea spray.

SA Health's principal water quality adviser David Cunliffe yesterday told a Senate inquiry into the bloom that the testing of sea foam for brevetoxins — which had already been detected in shellfish — had only begun "about two weeks ago".

Public health advice was updated on SA Health's website last week, when South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) executive director Mike Steer revealed that a "brevetoxin-like substance" had been found in foam that recently blanketed Adelaide's Henley Beach.

"The health advice that we're receiving at the moment is that those people who are asthmatic, who suf

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