11.04.2019 10:48 AM

Leading by example

The Toronto Star has many excellent stories in today’s paper about lead in water pipes. It’s a must-read. Link to their web site here.

5 Comments

  1. joe says:

    And most of the politicians and media say climate change is our most serious problem!

    Politicians like to build new stuff. They don’t like to spend the required money to maintain and repair water, sewers, bridges and roads.

    Why wasn’t this storey released before the last election?

  2. Dean Rivando says:

    All I could think about when I read these stories is how many times I have read that bottled water is no better for us than tap water, and people should just drink tap water rather than water bottled in disposable plastics. I never bought it, but this proves that, on average, that seemingly well meaning advice was total bullshit. In any case, I wonder how much lead is removed by the activated carbon in Brita filters?

    • Peter says:

      My thoughts exactly. Bottled water company executives must be high-fiving one another after this. I find the story irresponsible, designed more to sell papers than inform readers. It’s full of upsetting talk about “dangerous levels” “serious long-term health consequences”, etc., but nowhere does it try to inform readers what falling below “national safety guidelines” actually means. We know lead poisoning can be a very serious matter that can threaten life and both physical and mental health in tragic ways, but obviously doctors and hospitals are not seeing a pandemic of lead poisoning or we would have heard of it long before now. There isn’t one doctor quoted in the article to give us some practical context, just water and environmental “experts” enjoying their day in the sun. So what are we supposed to do? Everybody will panic, the wealthy will revert to bottled water and those who can’t afford to will just suck it up and cross their fingers.

      At one point the article suggests most Canadians are unaware of the health consequences and hints this is because of government negligence. Maybe, but given the extensive nature of the study, I’m a little angry neither the journalists nor the Star seem to have much interest in remedying that.

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