Everyone is looking for lunchI have been reading an exchange on the Melaque message board about local water quality. A fellow, who identified himself as an "environmental chemistry professor," posted a message that he had conducted personal and informal tests on the town water and found it 5 times higher in nitrates than the EPA limit for USA drinking water. He then tested two 5-gallon drinking water bottles and found one to have nitrate levels almost as high as the tap water. The other bottle tested just over the EPA limit.
Because the forum was a message board, the discussion quickly devolved into acrimony and ad hominem attacks. As too often happens, the original poster (it was his first post on the board) retreated in anger -- and, I suspect, will never be heard from again.
Do not feel too sorry for him. He could deliver as much bile as was dished out to him. In a brilliant broadside that only an academic could deliver, he fired back at his tormentor: "It makes me wonder from your tone of your remarks whether you are global warming/climate change denier as well?" I guess they do not teach grammar and punctuation in the unnamed university of which he is a noted professor.
But this is not a posting about the odd etiquette of message boards. I covered that topic last January in board to tears. My current concern is about water quality. We really take it for granted -- especially here in the western United States. The tap water in my home town tastes great. I have been enough places in the world where the water tastes terrible.
And it is a real problem. When I go to Mexico, I always buy bottled water for drinking and cooking. It never occurred to me that the bottled water may have as many contaminates as the local tap water. I should note that no one has indicated that the water is polluted. It merely may contain nitrates. And, to be completely honest, I have heard no one tolling the wolf bell other than the "professor" of whom we know little.
We do know that nitrates are a world-wide problem. Run-off from agricultural fields combined with consumer carelessness has resulted in polluted streams throughout the world -- the Everglades being a chief example. I have no reason to believe that Melaque will be spared the same problem.
What to do? Well, I am not overly concerned. I doubt that I will stop drinking water in Mexico. And, "professor," before you fire that handy cannon in my direction: I am not a "global warming/climate change denier" -- whatever that may mean. In Mexico, I will talk with my neighbors and find the best source for my drinking water.
Of course, if I spend much time dining in the restaurant pictured above, I may not have to worry about the effects of nitrates on my blood.
Because the forum was a message board, the discussion quickly devolved into acrimony and ad hominem attacks. As too often happens, the original poster (it was his first post on the board) retreated in anger -- and, I suspect, will never be heard from again.
Do not feel too sorry for him. He could deliver as much bile as was dished out to him. In a brilliant broadside that only an academic could deliver, he fired back at his tormentor: "It makes me wonder from your tone of your remarks whether you are global warming/climate change denier as well?" I guess they do not teach grammar and punctuation in the unnamed university of which he is a noted professor.
But this is not a posting about the odd etiquette of message boards. I covered that topic last January in board to tears. My current concern is about water quality. We really take it for granted -- especially here in the western United States. The tap water in my home town tastes great. I have been enough places in the world where the water tastes terrible.
And it is a real problem. When I go to Mexico, I always buy bottled water for drinking and cooking. It never occurred to me that the bottled water may have as many contaminates as the local tap water. I should note that no one has indicated that the water is polluted. It merely may contain nitrates. And, to be completely honest, I have heard no one tolling the wolf bell other than the "professor" of whom we know little.
We do know that nitrates are a world-wide problem. Run-off from agricultural fields combined with consumer carelessness has resulted in polluted streams throughout the world -- the Everglades being a chief example. I have no reason to believe that Melaque will be spared the same problem.
What to do? Well, I am not overly concerned. I doubt that I will stop drinking water in Mexico. And, "professor," before you fire that handy cannon in my direction: I am not a "global warming/climate change denier" -- whatever that may mean. In Mexico, I will talk with my neighbors and find the best source for my drinking water.
Of course, if I spend much time dining in the restaurant pictured above, I may not have to worry about the effects of nitrates on my blood.
