Canadian drinking water guidelines leave bad taste
November 22, 2006 -
New study highlights vulnerability of municipal water systems
VANCOUVER – Recent boil-water advisories for more than two million British Columbia residents show the urgent need to upgrade Canada’s drinking water guidelines, says the author of a new report from the David Suzuki Foundation.
“To date, the situation in Vancouver is mainly a nuisance,” says David Boyd, an environmental lawyer and report author. “But the largest boil water advisory in Canadian history should serve as a wake-up call for Canadians. The weakness of Canada’s drinking water guidelines jeopardizes the health of people from B.C. to Newfoundland.”
The report The Water We Drink compares Canada’s voluntary guidelines for safe drinking water with corresponding frameworks in the U.S., the European Union, and Australia. The report identifies 55 biological, chemical, and radiological contaminants for which Canada’s guidelines are weaker than other jurisdictions. For many chemical contaminants, the Canadian guideline is 50, 100, or even 1,000 times weaker than the corresponding European standard or Australian guideline.
The federal government estimates that, each year, contaminated drinking water in Canada causes more than 90 deaths and 90,000 cases of illness. Waterborne pathogens (bacteria, viruses and protozoa) can cause gastrointestinal disease outbreaks. Chemical and radiological exposure through drinking water can cause cancer, damage to internal organs and reproductive problems.
“The most systemic failure to provide safe drinking water is occurring on Aboriginal reserves,” says Mr. Boyd. “As many as 75 per cent of water systems on reserves face significant threats to the quality and safety of drinking water.”
The report concludes with several key, workable solutions for reducing the toll of drinking water contamination on the health and well-being of Canadians. These solutions include:
· Health-based long-term objectives for drinking water quality;
· Legally binding national standards that are equal to or better than the highest standards of any industrialized nation;
· Urgent steps to provide clean drinking water on Aboriginal reserves;
· Long-term targets and timelines for reducing water pollution; and,
· Federal support for protection of drinking water supplies at the source as well as upgrades to municipal water supply infrastructure.
“Canada needs to adopt a preventative approach to water pollution,” says Ann Rowan, sustainability program director at the David Suzuki Foundation. “By improving our fundamental level of protection for drinking water, the federal government has a tremendous opportunity to prevent unnecessary deaths and illnesses, reduce health care costs and improve Canadians’ quality of life.”
The Water We Drink: An International Comparison of Drinking Water Quality Standards and Guidelines can be found online at: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/WOL/Publications.asp
For more information contact:
Jason Curran
Communications Specialist, David Suzuki Foundation
Office: (604) 732-4228, ext. 229
Cell: (604) 961-9591
jcurran@davidsuzuki.org
