River Nose
At the request of numerous Columbia River water sports folks and the Columbia Riverkeeper group, the EPA is currently studying the mysterious (and rather freakishly named) set of ailments called "river nose". Some of the symptoms reported over the years include runny nose, sore throats, diarrhea, and cuts/scrapes that take longer than normal to heal.
So, for this week's Hood River Weather site poll, I'm asking what you think might be the primary cause. I'm thinking that it's probably multiple causes, but since my polling software doesn't allow multiple choices yet, just pick the cause you think is primary.
I am assuming that no other windsurfing area of the world reports these particular sets of symptoms, so I have left out my somewhat cynical theory of "just being out in the extreme wind and cold water and being smashed against waves and equipment and having water pushed forcibly into facial orifices and open cuts and scrapes". So my second theory is "pollen or algae", and I am leaning towards the algae.
We can only hope that the EPA studies help resolve the cause and can come up with a less visually disturbing name than "river nose".
If it were pollen or algae, don't you think others besides those in the water would be affected? (Although I suppose it could be a water-borne alga, but then wouldn't that fall in with bacteria or other pathogen? Well, maybe not.) My guess is that nothing definitive will be found, so we won't be any further than we are now. I used to work for EPA, and they have some very good scientists and very good laboratories, but I remember that we often couldn't find anything to explain "environmentally induced" maladies. At least not to the satisfaction of people suffering from those maladies. I guess that's life in the real world. Sigh!
ReplyDeleteGood points. I was specifically thinking pollen floating in the water or algae living in the water. I probably should have separated those 2 choices out, but they both represent plant material as opposed to bacterial. I've dropped the word "pathogens" as that was too vague to be useful.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I won't be too surprised if nothing definitive is found. I do find it interesting that there doesn't appear to be any such mass symptoms elsewhere in the water sports world. Maybe they just aren't noticed and/or reported to the degree they are here. Maybe it's a case of increased awareness and reporting due to the publicity, or maybe it's even a mild case of mass sociogenic illness.
Or maybe there is something unique to the wind sports environment in the Columbia.
It would be interesting to see some solid numbers showing the percentage of wind surfers and kiteboarders that suffer from these symptoms. Is it 50, 25, 2 percent, or what?
I think it might have to do with the nuclear waste leaking from the Hanford site some three hundred miles upstream. No big deal, just a little nuclear contaminated H2O. Yum. Check out this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site
ReplyDeleteSo, yeah, why don't we all know and talk about it. Pretty major and real. If you research more you'll find that there are significantly high levels of nuclear isotopes in the Columbia right now. Such a pretty place though. Or it could be from waste from other factories up stream?
Take care...and enjoy.