Hi all…Information on drinking water quality issues in First Nation Communities in the refereed literature is very sparse. An accepted manuscript has just appeared in the journal ‘Applied and Environmental Microbiology’ documenting some testing in one such community. What I found interesting is that while water leaving the treatment plant was free of total coliforms [...]
Hi all…hidden within this article is some information on the potential fate of 3 intentionally introduced toxins in distribution systems. The main focus of the study is an assessment of how various pathogens/toxins may attach to different pipe materials. The biocidal ability of copper in particular is confirmed and there is some good information on [...]
The USEPA has released health advisories for the perfluorinated compounds perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). As far as I am aware, there are no advisories, guidelines, or standards in Canada at this time. They are very difficult to remove from drinking water.
Hi all…as this year’s cyanotoxin season draws near, a review article entitled “Toxic cyanobacteria and drinking water: Impacts, detection, and treatment” has just appeared in print. The authors state “this paper synthesizes and updates a number of previous review articles on various aspects of this multi-barrier approach in order to provide a holistic resource for [...]
Hi all...I've been made aware of an article describing a norovirus outbreak in northeastern Spain in April which made in excess of 4,000 Barcelona and Tarragona consumers ill. The water was distributed to hundreds of companies with water dispensers used by employees. Catalan health authorities claim that "This is the first time in recorded history that [...]
Hi all… a new study on lead in drinking water has just been published in the journal Water Research. A total of 78,971 water samples collected in four Canadian provinces from elementary schools, daycares, and other large buildings were analyzed for lead. The authors anticipate that “lead at the tap would not contribute to elevated blood [...]
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 [...]