Bird Flu and Water Tanks in the Roof

To work there or sell?

Become a millionaire if you deal with it to your advantage? At least it won't do you any kind of harm. ;-)

You should not store drinking water in a tank in the roof!

Alan

You certainly use it for washing. So if you do, don't be surprised if you all turn blonde after a few hair washes..........

He doesn't, but the OP might, or at least bathe in it ;^>

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Pachiderm" saying something like:

Yumm...

Scott writes: |> >

It's about time that our Victorian building regulations and British Standards get updated to finally stop builders installing loft tanks that serve no other purpose than to make fresh water to go stale and infectious before it can be used in the bathroom. Some types of bacterial eye infections are 20x more prevalent in Britain than in other European countries or the US. Our loft tanks are the prime suspects [New Scientist]. They are illegal in most other European countries, for obvious hygiene reasons.

Markus

Why do we still have them?. Is it 'agin the regs to connect the hot water directly to the mains incommer?...

I'm not talking about that; it's the time from initial identification of the first instance of the disease to its being widespread. That's the frightener.

Within hours.

No. We do know that there are differences, between the current version and previous versions, from the effect on bird->human victims. It has a very high mortality rate and it provokes a massive reaction in natural human response. That means that it will kill the healthy as well as the sick. Also, by the time flu, plague, &c get here it has generally gone from the original infection through many human hosts before it gets to us. In general the disease effect weakens slightly at each stage. With modern transport we are more likely to get the disease having gone through fewer stages. Nasty.

I heard a number of 50,000 deaths in the UK. If you want to worry add a couple of zeros at the end to get a 'not impossible' scenario. I won't give you nightmares with the possibilty of 3 more zeros - but I cannot think of anything that would rule out that possibility.

You are more likely to contract legionnaires disease if your tank supplies

a shower. It is good practice to clean the tank yearly. Use a syphon hose

to suck up all the sediment from the bottom of the tank. Then pour about

half litre of thick bleach into the tank and stir. run the taps until you can smell the bleach. Leave to stand for 1 hour. then drain the tank and keep refilling until the water from the taps is free of the smell of bleach. Your system will then be cleansed of waterborne bugs and nasties especially legionella. Martin McGowan

Water can be supplied at lower pressure through Victorian pipework thus saving the water company money.

The rural Chinese population aren't in the habit of taking foreign holidays or business trips. China also seems to be very much on the ball as well. The same applies to pretty much all of the rural population of SE Asia but prehaps not all governments. Now if it makes the jump in a city...

So did the 1918 pandemic, fit healthy people pushing up the daises in

That is what HMG is working on, around 1:1200. Personally I think it will be higher. HMG expect an infection rate of 85% and death rate of

"Pachiderm" wrote

This is the second time in recent weeks this question has been asked.

Interesting. I've never even heard of anyone getting bacterial eye infections.

Just how common is this bacterial eye infection problem, and is it known the exact cause?

Martin <

Feed the pigeons yourself - using feed laced with weedkiller. They won't come back - ever.

Pigeons are a far lesser health risk than humans - so your advice is? ...

You lucky thing. Set up a trap, or buy an air rifle, and transform all that bird seed she gives them into pigeon pie!

Kill the pigeons.