Most of Latin America is fraught with danger for those who would unthinkingly brush teeth or accept a soft drink over ICE.

Yet the growing population here may change that situation.

The issue is newsworthy today because the United States is facing an epidemic of E. coli bacteria believed linked to packaged spinach, produced in California. More than 100 persons have been sickened, and two deaths have been linked to the outbreak.

Even though some packages carried the label “Dole,” all the spinach involved is reported to have come from California. Costa Rica exports tons of vegetables to the United States, and there have been few recent problems. U.S. consumers purchase over 2 million bags of Dole salad every day, the company said.

E. coli comes from only one source: sewage, either human or animal. And such an infection can be fatal for toddlers or the aged or infirm.

Dole Food Co., Inc., has announced that it supports the voluntary recall issued by Natural Selection Foods of packaged fresh spinach that Natural Selection produced and packaged. Some of it was under the Dole brand. The suspect spinach carries the  best-if-used-by date of Aug. 17 through Oct. 1, 2006, said Dole.

One argument that has been advanced in favor of rebuilding the Central Valley sewer lines is to take sewage out of the surface water. The current system dumps untreated sewage into tributaries that eventually flow into the Río Tárcoles and then the Gulf of Nicoya. Agricultural irrigation that uses water from the Tárcoles might contain  E. coli or worse.

In some Latin countries lettuce is a luxury. That leafy vegetable is hard to clean, and parboiling to remove E. coli or amoebas destroys the taste.

Most home gardeners know that using fresh manure for vegetable fertilizer is a bad practice. The bacteria stays alive and reproduces. A child’s death in Maine was traced to E. coli from calf manure that his mother added to the family garden, according to Colorado State University. Bacteria will even survive a freezing winter, and composting plus four to six months of curing is recommended, the university said.

E. coli also is found in milk, undercooked hamburger, other fresh vegetables and unpasteurized fruit juices. Cheese and ICE cream also can be vectors of the bacteria.

A description of other parasites that might invade the body through drinking water or food would fill a large textbook. Fortunately many are rare in Costa Rica.

The Central Valley sewer project appears to be hung up in the Asamblea Legislativa where lawmakers have to decide if they will accept a $130 million loan from the government of Japan. Health officials and water company executives are pushing for the measure, but the $130 million is only about a third of the cost. So lawmakers have to decide if they will come up with the rest of the money.