<blockquote><cite>Posted By: billt</cite>I can't believe that I'm reading qeipl's comment. Maybe you're joking, but it doesn't look like it. It may be true that low dosages of low virulence pathogens can be shrugged off by the young and healthy; that's certainly not true of high doses of virulent pathogens, or people with poor health.

I suggest that you read The Ghost Map to see the sort of effects that untreated water supplies can have, 616 people died from cholera due to infected water supplies.

A clean water supply is one of the great achievements of the 19th century, and one of the biggest contributors to improved standards of health and longevity.</blockquote>

Whilst it's true that water free from high concentrations of virulent pathogens is a good thing, it is worth putting the risks into perspective.

Clean water from a spring or borehole is extremely unlikely to ever cause any harm. The caving club I frequented has a water supply taken from a spring higher up the hill and hundreds use the club house every month, and have done for around 50 years, with no ill effect from the water. Like qeipl, we've had to fish the odd dead sheep out of the dam that feeds the pipe down the hill from time to time, too.

The risks with regard to water supply come almost wholly from cross contamination with human faeces. It is this that causes 99.9 % of water-borne disease and it is this that is the big issue in countries that still get their drinking water from rivers. It was the advent of city-dwelling and the consequent faecal contamination of rivers and wells with sewerage that caused the phobia we have today with cleaning and sterilising water and I wouldn't for one moment suggest that this is not a good thing to do if your water comes from such a source. It is an undeniable fact, though, that there are millions living perfectly healthy lives whilst drinking clean spring and borehole water with no treatment.

It's really a question of getting things into proportion. Drinking clean spring water isn't at all likely to do any harm; drinking water from a river that is downstream of human habitation may well cause harm.

billt,

I am partly joking.

I share your enthusiasm for the triumph over cholera and regularly give money to charities that promote clean water supplies in other parts of the world.

But if you think of the health risks involved with driving, or smoking, or breathing city air, there is something comical about modern society's fear of 'germs'.

Or look at it this way... treating water with chlorine or UV is a very recent practice, and is not yet universal. 99.999% of all humans who have ever lived have always done what I do - drink water from a spring or stream. It's normal. Chlorinated water is abnormal.

Malcolm

Youre ok as long as none of the residents have amalgam fillings. (question:- will chlorine effectively treat water with mercury in it)

sorry back to thread

I'm with qeipl on this one. Have been lucky enough to have grown up in the sticks living off mountain water. See your one sheep and raise you six baboons, occasional snakes and many other creepy crawlies.
We have a number of springs on our property and will be plumbed in in the not too distant future. There is a large spring along the ridge from us that has a significant number - my guess is in the hundreds - of people regularly topping up large drinking water containers to take home. No reports of problems and the filling point is a plain pipe sticking out of the bank next to a minor road through the forest.
Immune systems definitely need to be exercised - use it or lose it. With the ways of our modern world, unfortunately significant numbers are losing theirs to over-use of drugs, poor diet, lack of excercise, sterilising etc
The NHS has, in my experience, to a large degree out-sourced the populations immune systems to the big drug companies for whom the NHS is a 'banker' - but that's a whole other subject.
How much has the modern cleaning regimes in hospitals done to create the superbugs?? We live in finely balanced eco-systems. If we start to meddle with them, it comes back to bite us. After all, a little knowledge has been proven time and again to be a very dangerous thing. Some clever clogs once said that 'the more I learn, the more I realise I dont know' or something to that effect. We humans are making decisions daily based on a very basic and at least partly flawed knowledge of how things actually work.
As has been said, there are many more serious dangers we dodge every day. All we can do is look after our immune systems as naturally as we can, take some basic precautions and stop worrying about every little bug as we are surrounded by millions anyway and it is the worrying that will probably do us in first. Yes there will always be a few who succumb, but that is life (no its not, its death)

phew - I feel a bit better now

Just be careful with open streams on hillsides - it's not bacteria that are the problem but protozoans, amoebas and other parasites.

Paul in Montreal.

p.s. just be thankful you guys don't have Lyme Disease in the UK

Posted By: qeiplWe do have Lyme disease, but it's not a water borne (as far as I know). Ticks are the culprits.

I thought it was only present in central and eastern Europe? I didn't realize it was in the UK too. I know it's tick-borne, I was just thinking of hillsides and hiking :) I have a friend who got the disease - very very unfortunate consequences.

Paul in Montreal.

from BBC news today

"Three British men have died and three more people are in hospital after contracting Legionnaires' disease while on holiday in Spain.

The pensioners died after staying at the Diamante Beach Hotel in Calpe, Costa Blanca, Saga Holidays said.

One died in hospital on Thursday. Another was found dead in a hotel room.

Five others who recently stayed at the same hotel were treated in UK hospitals and all but one had been discharged, the company added."

Posted By: billtBut almost certainly not caused ny legionella in the water system.

Is that stating something you've read or your own opinion? The reports I've read say, among other things, that following examinations changes are to be made to the plumbing of the hotel before the tour company uses it again. All the customers were moved to another hotel.