The deadlines for providing comments to Health Canada on their ‘Guidance document on the use of quantitative microbial risk assessment in drinking water’ and ‘Proposed guideline technical document on copper in drinking water’ documents have expired but a ‘Proposed guideline technical document on strontium in drinking water’ is now available for public comment at...
A review of “Epidemiological Studies of Drinking-Water Turbidity in Relation to Acute Gastrointestinal Illness” has been published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
We’re now well aware that impacted watersheds used for drinking water can have high occurrence frequencies of protozoan pathogen (oo)cysts such as those of Giardia and Cryptosporidium. This includes the Grand River in southern Ontario where frequencies can approach 100%.
Finally a large scale study that confirms drinking water fluoridation prevents dental caries has been published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Unfortunately, it also confirms that those with better teeth had higher blood lead levels.
Hi all…with advancements in molecular methods/genomics, microbial surveys are becoming much more affordable and are showing up in the literature more frequently. Since the adoption of biological filtration there has been strong interest in the bacterial consortia found in such filters. In a recent study in Saskatchewan researchers used 16S rRNA profiling to describe the [...]
Hi all…the Water Research Foundation has just released a report entitled “A Methodology for Locating and Managing Dynamic Potential Source Water Contaminant Data – Project 4581.” “The purpose of the project was to develop and demonstrate a methodology for identifying potential sources of contamination upstream of drinking water intakes, particularly from above ground storage tanks [...]
Hi all…despite 125 positive tests for E. coli, a Campylobacter outbreak affecting thousands, and 3 associated cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome attributable to contamination of Christchurch's drinking water in the past four years, the city's water supply will not be chlorinated (or otherwise treated). In fact, one report has the Medical Officer of Health saying "it was "not surprising" that E. coli was detected from [...]
Hi all…the Water Research Foundation and AWWA have just released a report entitled “Managing Cyanotoxins in Drinking Water-A Technical Guidance Manual for Drinking Water Professionals.” The authors state that the this report “is intended for users working for or with water utilities that have already been determined to be at risk of having cyanobacteria and [...]
HI all…with comments due to Health Canada on ‘Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) in Drinking Water’ guidelines on Sept 2, a new article reveals that two reported potential health effects of these compounds (early menopause and reduced kidney function) are actually a result of having those conditions rather than being the cause. This isn’t [...]
Hi all…the authors of this just published ‘Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology – Aqua’ paper conducted a demonstration project to evaluate a range of sampling methods and supporting techniques for tackling lead in drinking water in Alberta, with the cities of Calgary and Edmonton as case studies. The sampling protocols specified by Health [...]