SIESTA KEY, Fla. — It started with a tickle in her throat. Then came the coughing, then the headaches.

When the symptoms began earlier this summer, Monet Sexaure, 40, who is four months pregnant, couldn’t understand what was causing them.

“I thought I was coming down with a cold,” she said. “But I never got a cold.”

Then Sexaure went for a walk on the beach and her headache flared up — and she thought she might have figured it out. Sexaure lives in Siesta Key, a barrier island off the coast of Sarasota, Florida. That’s right in the path of the state’s toxic red tide.

The tide, a wave of microorganisms that choke sea life, hit the Gulf of Mexico last November and now spreads over about 130 miles of Florida’s southwest coast. Gov. Rick Scott has issued a state of emergency for seven counties, where waterways and coastlines are filled with putrid fish floating in brass-colored water.

The red tide also poses a health risk to people. The microorganisms emit brevetoxins, which can get blown into the air. When the toxins are breathed in, they constrict passages in the lungs, causing people to cough and have difficulty breathing…..more here