2y ago

Nitrate contamination map of New Zealand launched by Greenpeace

www.rnz.co.nz

Here's the actual map: https://maps.greenpeace.org/maps/aotearoa/know-your-nitrate/

13 comments

My first instinct was how it doesn't look too bad considering my expectations, but then I looked at Christchurch.
- How do we access the interactive map ? I need to do nitrate and heavy metal testing. Just haven't gotten around to it. Believe NZ has the highest allowance heavy metal in the oced. And it has a pretty high occurrence of bowel cancer. Potentially linking
  Edit
  Figured out the map. High risk area. Kinda thought that
  
  The article didn't actually link the map but I grabbed it from reddit and put it in the post body. I'll link it here again if anyone is still having trouble finding it: https://maps.greenpeace.org/maps/aotearoa/know-your-nitrate/
  Yes to the high bowel/colon/rectum cancers linked to high nitrate levels. I'd be interested to know if there is info available to map these cancers against this map of nitrate contamination.
  Also, didn't the previous National government make more waterways swimmable by changing the thresholds for what counts as swimmable? Or was that just a proposal?
And it's going to get worse with the change of government, particularly given the way David Seymour has been talking about water, farming, and deregulation.
I thought nitrates were fine (vegetables are full of them) unless mixed with meat whero they form nitrosamines?
- Basically in recent years a bunch of epidemiological studies have found the level at which it affects us is lower than previously thought.
  This paper from the Australian and NZ jnl of Public Health is pretty good I think: Nitrate in drinking water and cancer risk: the biological mechanism, epidemiological evidence and future research
  
  Espejo-Herrera (2016) found when diets were high in vitamin C there was no statistically significant increase in risk of colon cancer from elevated nitrate levels in water
  As I mentioned before, the cancer link must be related to poor diets lacking in antioxidants
- Maybe, but in terms of drinking water in a predominantly omnivore country, does this distinction matter? We have one of the highest bowel/colon/rectum cancer rates in the world, which is linked to nitrates in drinking water.
  
  They form from curing meat in super high levels for a long time. If the implication is that we can't consume nitrates with meat, we should probably be avoiding combining vegetables and meat in the same meal.
  Perhaps this just reflects low inhake of vitamin c - which prevents nitrosamines from forming
- Nitrates in drinking water are linked to cancer and birth defects. In high-enough concentrations it can trigger blue-baby syndrome, which can straight-up kill babies.

13 comments