I have two unrelated questions and would appreciate any knowledgeable feedback I could get on them: 1) All the preparation in the world is not going to help us in LA if we can't breathe. I remember the 1992 (or was it '93) LA riots after the Rodney King verdicts and we in the northern part of the city could see the ash and smell the smoke from 20 miles away. If half the city is burning from riots how will we be able to breathe? Serious question, guys and gals. Please, no levity .Any ideas?

2) Do those metal cans bleed out any harmful metals into the food, especially over long periods of storage? The horrible taste in them makes me think they do.

-- John Townsend (JTooon@aol.com), August 22, 1998

Answers

well mr. townsend, i'm not sure about the metal bleed except in cases of aluminum stored tomatoes. but i am sure of one thing, if you notice what alot of people are doing (i.e. north, hamasaki) and many programmers that these guys interview and know, they are running for the hills, or at least running out of the larger cities. probably a good wise thing to do is to make plans to be out of l.a. for at least the new years party and see what happens. however make good enough plans where if all heck breaks loose you don't have to go back. i have alot of friends and relatives telling me that i'm going overboard by preparing a contingency plan, however, every one who buys car, house, or life insurance is doing the same thing that we are, just making plans just in case. if nothing happens, we may have alot of rice, beans and ammo to get rid of, but if something does happen... well, you can figure it out. \(-_-)/

-- robert conn (rsconn@earthlink.net), August 23, 1998.

John, the first question is one reason that some people advocate having firm plans to leave big city areas.

There are subsidiary questions, like: "How do you know that this time YOU won't be in the riot area?"

There are others who believe that there won't be rioting. You take your choice, and decide what you are comfortable with.

Second question: Most people who've researched it say that *the manufacturers* claim this is not a problem (within a reasonable shelf life). You seem to have an adversion to canned food anyway, and to the taste of the food, so I guess the real question is whether or not you believe the manufacturers.

Canned food can be harmful if the can is corroded, which happens most rapidly if the contents are acidic.

This is why shelf life, as provided by the manufacturer, is important to consider.

Hope this helps.

-- rocky knolls (rknolls@hotmail.com), August 23, 1998.