Hi all…information on fungi in drinking water distribution systems continues to be scarce. As far as I am aware, there are no guidelines or regulations anywhere and it remains unclear as to whether or not their presence is necessarily indicative of a risk to human health. In a recent study (below) the authors report that [...]
Hi all...the final report of the Flint Water Advisory Task Force is now available on-line at no cost. The 116 page report is a bit difficult to quickly summarize; on the plus side, it’s very comprehensive. The task force arrived at 36 findings and has provided 42 recommendations for a variety of agencies/governing bodies. I found the [...]
Hi all…A new review on the biological stability of drinking water has just been published. As the study authors explain below “biological stability of drinking water refers to the concept of providing consumers with drinking water of same microbial quality at the tap as produced at the water treatment facility.” A lot of attention was [...]
Hi all…another article on the presence of pathogens in wastewater has been published. What makes this one a bit different is they surveyed for Enterocytozoon bieneusi which is one of a group of obligate intracellular parasitic fungi known as microsporidia. Instead of producing environmentally resistant oocysts or cysts like Cryptosporidium and Giardia they produce spores in the [...]
Hi all…in the first paper of its kind that I’m aware of, a comprehensive study to assess the presence and removal of viruses through a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plant in Canada has been published. The authors report that “Seven viruses including Norovirus, Rotavirus , Sapovirus, Astrovirus, Adenovirus, Enterovirus, and JC virus were detected in [...]
Hi all…On the 6:00 and 11:30 newscasts last night, CTV Kitchener aired a story on ‘Where your water comes from’ featuring an interview with Tim Walton of the Region of Waterloo. It doesn’t appear to have been motivated by problems other than perhaps an awareness of the Flint lead contamination situation (seems more informative than [...]
Hi all…a couple of quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) articles with a Canadian focus have appeared on-line over the past few months, both having used the Health Canada QMRA model. The first, an article from our research Chair, has just appeared as an uncorrected proof in the Water Quality Research Journal of Canada. It is [...]
The CBC has just released a story on fluoridation cessation, comparing children’s teeth in Calgary and Edmonton entitled “Fluoride-free drinking water in Calgary leads to rise in kids' tooth decay, study indicates (University of Calgary study shows rise in decay worst in baby teeth).”
Hi all…So the Flint lead contamination event has been making headlines for a few months now. What do we know? I’ve accessed some EXCEL spreadsheets which provide some interesting raw lead data (links below). Adjacent homes can have values of 0 µg/L and 5,000 µg/L! It would be difficult for the City to even say [...]
Hi all...Leaching of chemical contaminants (e.g. copper, lead) and growth of pathogens (e.g. Legionella) have been clearly implicated in the degradation of safe drinking water in domestic plumbing. We also know that some contaminants can be harmful through aerosolization (pathogens, chlorine/bromine-based THMs); however, this just-released article is the first example I'm aware of where a group of disinfection by-products [...]