Forget Why You Get "River Nose". Just Stop Kitesurfing There.

E365 -- "River nose." What is this mysterious phenomenon?

Windsurfers and kiteboarders have been dipping into the Columbia River for their fix for ages now, and most of the time, emerging with the sniffles, sinus infections, sneezing fits, nausea, cuts that don't heal and fatigue.

It's been going on for about 20 years, and for some reason, they still press on.

"If you get a lot of water up your nose, you're going to get flu symptoms," said local surfer David Wickman on AP. "There are 50 rivers feeding into this one, and a lot of pesticides and runoff, and you've got the Hanford plant. It's just kind of a soup in there."

"Some of it is you spend hours in the water, and you get tossed around a lot," said afflicted windsurfer Jeff Castleberry. "But I just don't want to find out 10 years from now that I've been poisoning myself."

Well, maybe it's got to do with the fact that the river begins in a Canadian glacier and trickles south through a series of metalworking sites, industrial mills and septic tanks.

Hello...?

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