NITRATE IN WATER

There are a number of environmental concerns which periodically catch the headlines and subsequently fade from sight, not because the problem has been solved but because the issue has ceased to be news. A recent example of this media ephemerality involved reports that the water supplies of some parts of the country were ‘seriously’ contaminated with nitrogen (in the form of nitrate); that the problem was caused by chemical fertilisers and getting rapidly worse: and that the EEC was taking action to stop it. And yet, within a few days, nothing more was mentioned.