Postbag: Rats on Sukhumvit

Postbag: Rats on Sukhumvit

I am a regular visitor to Bangkok but my last visit has made me wonder if Sukhumvit Road is in the middle of a rat plague? I don't recall ever seeing so many rats, and all during the day.

I was walking near Soi 43 one morning and came across about 10 rats feasting on garbage. I spoke to the owner of my hotel and she suggested it was because we were not in the wet season, and many hadn't drowned in the underground tunnels as would usually be the case.

DAVE BUTLER


Vegetables in the stew

I suppose we should thank Michael Nightingale and Eric Bahrt for warning us about the use of antibiotics in raising farm animals.

It is truly a disgrace that this practice exists and is indeed a threat to our health. But I find their reporting very one-sided and incomplete.

If they are posting letters to warn us of the dangerous practice of foodstuff producers then why aren't they lecturing us on the dangers of pesticides on fruit and vegetables as well?

Reading up on the dangers of pesticides being used to produce better yields I found that researchers have uncovered substances like the metals arsenic, lead and mercury; pesticides chlorpyrifos, permethrin and endosulfan; persistent organic pollutants dioxin, DDT, dieldrin and chlordane; and the food processing byproduct acrylamide amongst other dangerous chemicals while checking common fruit and vegetable produce.

So if Eric and Michael are worried about our health then why are they keeping this from us? Why? Because Eric and Michael don't give a hoot about our health, they simply have another agenda. To stop us eating animals.

And that's why their ''health warnings'' are always one-sided and biased against meat eaters. All foodstuffs can expose us to dangerous farming practices and so the focus and warnings should be balanced, not nitpicked to suit one's own ''veggies is the only way'' crusade.

VICTOR MELDREW


Danger everywhere

First of all, there are more than 2,500 different Salmonellas. They can be in eggs, chicken, meat, vegetables, canned food, water and humans. There is even a type that is only transmitted from human to human, which cannot appear in other animals.

I've been working with food and hygiene for more than 40 years and follow scientific reports from everywhere in the world. For every report Mr Bahrt is providing, I can find 10-plus which say otherwise.

Salmonella occurs in unclean environments. The first thing I learned was: never use the same tool on meat or fish, after you have used it on vegetables and potatoes, without cleaning and putting it in hot water. In the big slaughterhouses of today, they steam first, clean and steam again.

To use this as an excuse for not eating meat is wrong information. I rarely eat eggs and never chicken, which I see only as cat food. I live on vegetables and some seafood, and of course bread. If I should eat meat I prepare it myself; sok sok, dam dam.

And to vegetarians, Mr Bahrt should know that vegetarian diets don't have all the essential amino acids we need daily. And don't forget, using this diet on children causes malfunctions in the body, as shown in thousands of reports.

LONG-TIME GUEST


Footballing worthies

What influence does the football team Buriram United have on the Bangkok Post's sports writers? One can be forgiven for thinking that it is the only team in Thailand, as it is always that team which is reported in the sport's pages, and this weekend is no exception. I am sure that numerous other teams are worthy of being featured.

MARTIN R


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