ALISON TAYLOR: MY SHOUT.

Byline: ALISON TAYLOR

LAST month, water to the Chinese city of Harbin was cut off after a chemical factory explosion released carcinogenic benzene into the river.

Officialdom took four days to come clean, prompting our media to snide remarks about China's notorious secrecy.

Clearly, their memories are very short. In 1988, 20 tons of aluminium sulphate contaminated Lowermoor Reservoir near Camelford in Cornwall and, although people were dropping like flies, weeks passed before the full facts emerged.

The USA Center for Disease Control (CDC) describes cryptosporidium as a parasite which, once ingested, can attack both digestive and respiratory systems, causing contagious and untreatable illnesses.

It is highly resistant to all chemical disinfectants, including chlorine: boiling water is the only sure method of destruction.

For maybe two months, it's been at toxic levels in my local supply and some hundred and fifty people have fallen ill. Affected households must now boil water for human consumption.

The CDC advises doing the same for pets.

For our health's sake, we're urged to drink two litres of water per day. I do; I always have. Since early November, I've had persistently upset innards, stomach cramps, feverish headaches, a sore throat and mouth ulcers.

Granted, I frequently hug animals, but crypto's a far more likely suspect than Camilla (the mare).

Reader Robert Anthony has taken me to task for calling her prettier than Camilla, the duchess. It was a joke - one which Duchess Camilla, if reports are true, would probably appreciate.

Anyway, think about it: aren't animals usually much better looking than us, without the help of artifice No offence was intended. Robyn Lewis also gave me a pen-lashing, but for referring to Camilla as "our" Duchess of Cornwall. He wants to know if I'm Cornish.

Firstly, though, why did he call Charles "Pretender" to the English throne when he's heir apparent? We have no claim: although Llewellyn the Great (1196-1240) married King John's daughter, she was never in line.

Now, my ancestors. While all but a few hail from Ynys Mon, given our swarthy looks, the sea-faring Moors from North Africa doubtless feature somewhere. After making landfall in westernmost Britain, they intermingled freely with the Celts who, in the 6th century, had been driven into Cornwall, Cumbria and Wales by the invading Saxons.

Welsh, Cornish and Breton French share the same linguistic roots: indeed, I recently overhead someone remarking about how Welsh and Cornish names and words are almost identical. So, although I'm Welsh, DNA-wise, there's probably little or nothing between me and a Cornish Celt.

The same can probably be said for Dr Lewis. On those grounds, then, Camilla is indeed "our" Duchess