Dr. Guiteras wrote a medical advice column for the Chapel Hill Herald from 1980 to 2000. He is now reviving the column for the CHFM website. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, not necessarily those of the management of CHFM; even so, you can trust what you read here. If you have a question that you would like to have considered for this monthly column, send it to askgpg@yahoo.com. We will consider it for reply and reserve the right to edit the question to suit our needs. Please do not use this email address for any other purpose. Question: My husband is forever drinking from a garden hose, which I hate. It is not only redneck, but also unhealthy. The nozzle lies around in the dirt and water sits in the hose for weeks at a time. No telling what he might pick up. He laughs when I tell him to stop it, but says he’ll go along with what you say. What do you have to say about this awful habit? Answer: I grew up drinking from hoses and lived to tell about it. Fully 80% of my fluid intake – and that of the ill-bred neighborhood pack I ran with – came from garden hoses and outdoor spigots. Glasses and cups were superfluous and effete. After all, they only slowed the process of getting a drink, had to be washed and interfered with the gusto of drinking right from the source, with the bonus being a cool splash in the face and neck. It was perfect for hot summer days. Because hose water contains a great deal of air, especially if delivered through a nozzle, it also promotes another Southern male joy – belching. This could be the real reason so many of us prefer this means of taking a drink, just as we prefer our Beef-A-Roni from a can while standing in our undershorts watching football on TV. Maybe your husband grew up with the same boyish and idyllic experience and simply wants to continue. Unlike your husband, however, when I received spousal advice on the esthetics and socio-cultural implications of drinking from a hose, I gave it up immediately and forever. But I miss it. Despite its good points, drinking hose water may cause more than esthetic trouble. In the summer of 1995, 77 of 104 children at a day camp in Gainesville, Florida (my home town), became ill with acute diarrhea after drinking water from portable coolers at the camp. The outbreak was traced to an outdoor hose used to fill the coolers each day. Investigators found a protozoan parasite, Cryptosporidium parvum, lurking in the water from this hose. The municipal water supply and other water sources at the camp were free of the parasite. Officials figured contamination came from feces of “undetermined origin” found on the ground where the hose lay. This incident led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to advise officially that hoses not be used as drinking water sources. Of course, the CDC takes a conservative, public-health point of view which might not be applicable to private use of the family garden hose. Drinking from your garden hose is not essential to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, especially when you can easily step inside for a cold glass of lemonade whenever you want. It is also slightly uncouth and, in our increasingly uncivilized world, any move toward improved manners and politeness should be encouraged. While it is extremely unlikely that your hose could become contaminated with Cryptosporidium or other germs, infection is still a possibility and mustn’t be discounted entirely. (This article, now slightly modified, first appeared in the Chapel Hill Herald on August 7, 1996.) Want more? Check out our ARTICLE ARCHIVES TOP Chapel Hill Family Medicine, PA · 120 Conner Drive · Suite 200 · Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Phone 919-967-8291 · Fax 919-967-3627