kevmacmeh said:
Ive been told to "no comment" on any reporters coming in as there has been this thing in the uk where the ice for the drinks is riddled with some disease which i cant now remember.
It's not just the UK, ice is gross, gross, gross wherever you go:
A girl in Florida (7th grader) took swabs and compared ice to toilet water, her findings:
"70 percent of the time, ice from fast food restaurants was dirtier than toilet water. "
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=1641825&page=1
Anyone who isn't a clean freak (or whos scientific mind is stronger than their initial emotional response) would ponder or consider that 'bacteria' does not necessarily equal 'disease' or other forms of 'badness' (yes, a scientific term

). We are full of 'germs' some good, some bad, some neutral BUT this story (project) wasn't just a sensational headline backed by Junk Science or unexplained numbers:
Of the bacteria found in the ice, three out of the five restaurants tested positive for fecal coliform or E. coli, organisms that come from the feces of warm-blooded animals.
Health symptoms related to the presence of coliform include cramps and diarrhea. E. coli can cause intestinal illness and, in rare cases, hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious kidney condition.
http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBQOZP9MJE.html
This project was copied/redone by unmotivated (unoriginal, or maybe just skeptical) students all over, including here in Canada and they found similar results.
AND THAT'S IN SO-CALLED 'DEVELOPED NATIONS' :
Now, even the novice traveller (somebody who doesn't catch Lonely Planet reruns at least once a month) knows NOT TO DRINK THE LOCAL WATER in most nations
but they WILL NOT EVEN CONSIDER the dangers of the Ice that is plopped into their Cola, Cocktail or my favorite (delicious irony!)...cup of bottled water... - You can get all sorts of baddies, from any number of SEVERE DIAHRREAH (sp?) causing organisms (nothing to laugh at, I knew somebody who had to run to the washroom every 10 minutes for almost a week, the problem was that they were in backcountry INDIA, the washroom was a hole in the ground filled with snakes...) to LIFELONG Liver Conditions (Hepatitis A)... There is a great Television commercial that still runs ocassionally where a traveller is handed an appetizing looking Red Colored cocktail, you see two gleaming ice-cubes plopped in and a voice: 'yummm that looks delicious', that's followed by a more sinister voice stating that you can get Hepatitis from something as mundane as this!
It's scary stuff...
Again, I am no clean freak - you can spend your whole life worrying only to be killed by a falling tree but its something to think about...
FYI: There's a vaccine that covers the two forms of Hepatitis you can get via oral contact (ice!). I am not sure if there are other forms of hepatitis, all I know is the vaccine works for 2 types (I think A and C). I think its called Twinrex. Canadians, its not covered by Ohip so you gotta pay for it

...