News

November 2008 issue

Ontario open to ban on sale of plastic water bottles

Updated Thu. Nov. 6 2008 1:44 PM ET

The Canadian Press

Click HERE for the story

Owners Club Newsletter

As a General Filter & Kitchenware owner, we are proud to make you a member of our Owners Club . You can receive your free membership card. There is no charge to be a member, and membership does have it advantages, which include:

•  10% discount on all service calls.

•  Various discounts on our products which include all types of water and air filters, and a complete variety of kitchenware, including stainless steel cookware, fine cutlery, beautiful china, plus a huge assortment of kitchen utensils and accessories.

•  A fabulous referral program that pays you cash and bonus products for referring friends and family to our company.

•  Free dinners prepaid at your home (if you are in one of our areas).

•  Updates on all specials and promotions.

• Great new information on health and nutrition.

For information on any of the above or for service or products please call our:

New Westminster head office 604-636-8004,

In the News…
Public Health and Drinking Water News Briefs

CDC Issues Report on Recreational Water Illness

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recently released a report regarding five 2006 laboratory-confirmed outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis , a gastrointestinal illness that causes severe diarrhea. The five outbreaks occurred in Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, South Carolina and Wyoming. Consequently, the CDC has suggested new recommendations for healthy swimming.

Cryptosporidium is one of the leading causes of gastroenteritis outbreaks associated with treated recreational water venues. Public pools and water recreation accounted for approximately 60% of reported outbreaks from 1995-2004 , according to the CDC. Since cryptosporidium is resistant to chlorine disinfection, the CDC recommends that treatment strategies for recreational water facilities need to be improved. The report notes that supplementary disinfection known to inactivate Cryptosporidium , such as ultraviolet radiation or ozone systems, can add an additional level of protection for swimmers by decreasing the length of time that the pathogens can be transmitted.

The CDC however, also stressed that healthy swimming behaviors can serve as a catalyst to reducing outbreaks. The report suggested that public education efforts should adopt messages articulated by the Water and Quality Health Council, which state the following:

• Do refrain from swimming while suffering from diarrhea
• Do not swallow pool water
• Do practice good hygiene
• Do report any contamination

Finally, in the event of an outbreak, public officials must work to decrease the possibility of communitywide transmission by communicating accurate and timely information.

To read the entire report, please visit:
Cryptosporidiosis Outbreaks Associated with Recreational Water Use

If you would like to remove Cryptosporidium from your drinking water or shower go to our Water Purifiers page.

CSO Discharges to the Great Lakes

• In Michigan in 2004, 27 billion gallons of a sewage-storm water mix was dumped into the Great Lakes.
• 2005 Michigan communities reported 338 sanitary sewer overflows 147 million gallons of raw sewage into the Great Lakes.

In the News…
Public Health and Drinking Water News Briefs

March 26, 2007
WQ&HC's Rose Presents Great Lakes Water Quality Research

WQ&HC member and Homer Nowlin Chair of Water Research at Michigan State University Joan Rose, PhD discussed her recent water quality research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) annual meeting. In her presentation "Drinking Water and Health: Forecasting Pathogen Risks in the Great Lakes," Dr. Rose discussed the increasing difficulty of separating drinking water and sewage, leading to a variety of illnesses and public health threats from contact with pathogens including Campylobacter, Giardia, Salmonella and noroviruses.

Dr. Rose's Great Lakes Basin project is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) effort to develop a means of forecasting water quality problems for lakes, rivers and streams. The ability to identify drinking water contamination scenarios in the early stages will help prevent health threats and possible disease outbreaks before they occur.

According to Dr. Rose, the safety of drinking water systems is challenged by aging water treatment infrastructure that can be overwhelmed by unpredictable weather conditions and heavy rainfall. Without appropriate barriers in place, the resulting flooding and overflow produces a dangerous mixing of sewage with source water for drinking water systems. The result of this can lead to potential human consumption of sewage-contaminated water and possible waterborne illness episodes.

Findings of the NOAA study suggest that more emphasis needs to be paid to watershed protection for the Great Lakes region water resources system, in place of the current focus on water treatment that can be overwhelmed by catastrophic weather events and the presence of treatment-resistant contaminants.

To view a PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Rose on the Great Lakes Basin project, please go to:
Water Quality and Health: The Great Lakes Basin

TEN STEPS TO OUR CHILDREN'S TOXIC FREE FUTURE

International global warming conference approves report on climate change

By ARTHUR MAX, Canadian Press

	Co-Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Martin Parry, presents a report on climate change at the EU Charlemagne building in Brussels, April 6, 2007. (CP)

RUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - An international global warming conference approved a report on climate change Friday, chairman Rajendra Pachauri said, after a contentious marathon session that saw angry exchanges between diplomats and scientists who drafted the report.

"We have an approved accord. It has been a complex exercise," Pachauri told reporters after an all-night meeting of the International Panel on Climate Change.

Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by government negotiators but in the end agreed to compromises. However, some scientists vowed never to take part in the process again.

"The authors lost," said one scientist. "A lot of authors are not going to engage in the IPCC process anymore. I have had it with them," he said on condition of anonymity because the proceedings were supposed to remain confidential. An Associated Press reporter, however, witnessed part of the final meeting.

The climax of five days of negotiations was reached when the delegates removed parts of a key chart highlighting devastating effects of climate change that kick in with every rise of one degree C and in a tussle over the level of confidence attached to key statements.

The United States, China and Saudi Arabia raised the most objections to the phrasing, most often seeking to tone down the certainty of some of the more dire projections.

The final report is the clearest and most comprehensive scientific statement to date on the impact of global warming mainly caused by man-induced carbon dioxide pollution.

It predicts that up to 30 per cent of species face an increased risk of extinction if global temperatures rise two degrees C above the average in the 1980s and '90s.

Areas that now suffer a shortage of rain will become even more dry, adding to the risks of hunger and disease, it said. The world will face heightened threats of flooding, severe storms and the erosion of coastlines.

Asbestos main cause of rising workplace deaths

Nearly five Canadians, on average, died every working day last year from a work-related accident or illness, according to a report that expresses "grave concern" that such deaths are rising, not falling, as they are in most other industrialized countries.

"We have also linked the increase in workplace deaths in Canada to asbestos exposure," says the Centre for the Study of Living Standards report, released today, which is critical of Canada's continued mining, use, and export of a substance many countries have banned.

Canada earlier this year reportedly blocked efforts by other nations to have asbestos placed on an international list of banned substances. Quebec is the only province that still produces asbestos and that output is mostly exported to underdeveloped countries.

Asbestos-related deaths accounted for 62 per cent of those from occupational diseases and 30 per cent of total workplace fatalities in 2004, the most recent year for which there are full figures, the report says.

"The increased fatality rate from asbestos, up from 0.4 per 100,000 workers in 1996 to 1.8 in 2004, accounted for the lion's share of the increased incidence from occupational disease," it says.

It warns that while most of the deaths due to asbestos date back to exposure before the implementation of stricter controls, the number of work-related deaths due to the substance has still not likely peaked.

NDP MP Pat Martin, a former asbestos miner, expressed shock at the increase in workplace deaths and the role of asbestos in that increase, and anger at the Canadian government's support for the asbestos industry.

"Asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever known," said the Manitoba MP, who still undergoes annual tests on his scarred lungs.

"And Canada is in complete denial of the health risks."

The Quebec asbestos mines are mostly located in economically depressed areas.

"We're still the second-largest producer and exporter of asbestos in the world but we won't say 'boo' because all the mines are in Quebec," Mr. Martin said. "It's appalling."

The industry is a money loser but is subsidized by the federal government, a subsidy which Mr. Martin said was just doubled. According to government documents, federal payments to the Asbestos Institute rose to $250,000 this fiscal year from $125,000 last year.

The contribution is to "foster the international implementation of the safe and responsible use of chrysotile asbestos." A call to the office of Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn was not returned yesterday.

The report, meanwhile, notes that 557, or 50.8 per cent of the deaths, were from occupational diseases, and 491 or 44.8 per cent were from accidents.

Information collected by the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada reveals 1,097 workplace fatalities in Canada in 2005, up from 758 in 1993, the report says. The incidence of such work-related deaths has also increased over that period to 6.8 per 100,000 last year from 5.9 in 1993.

"This upward trend is disturbing," it says. "It lies in contrast to a decline in the rate in the 1976-1993 period in Canada and to a fall in almost all other OECD countries over the 1993-2003 period."

"As Canadians work on average 230 days per year, this means that there were nearly five work-related deaths per work day in this country," it said.

The rate is "unacceptably high," it says, adding that "Canada can do much better."

The increase in the incidence of workplace deaths was almost entirely driven by an increase in occupational diseases, although workplace fatalities also rose, which may reflect an increase in the proportion of workers in high-risk industries such as construction, it says.

International figures are not fully comparable because, unlike Canada, some countries don't include occupational deaths, or put time limits on the ones they include, and some don't include traffic accidents while on the job.

"Nevertheless, even if one fully adjusted for definitional differences, it is very unlikely that Canada would emerge as a low workplace fatality country relative to its peers," it says.

If one compares only the workplace fatality rate from accidents, the latest figures suggest the United States, with 4.0 per 100,000, has a higher rate than Canada's 3.0, it says.

"However, a comparison of trends ... shows greater improvement in the United States than Canada," it says, noting the rate in the U.S. has fallen while the rate here has edged up.

And the rate in Canada was well above that in nine other industrial countries, it adds.

Other findings include:

- The most dangerous industry is fishing and trapping with 52 fatalities per 100,000 workers, followed by mining, quarrying and oil rigging at 46.9; logging and forestry at 33.3; and construction at 20.2.

- The least dangerous industry was finance and insurance with only 0.3 fatalities per 100,000.

- The most dangerous occupations are the trades, transport and equipment operators, and related occupations with 21.3 workplace deaths per 100,000 workers, followed by those unique to the primary industries, at 16.9, and those involved in processing, manufacturing, and utilities at 8.2, while all other major group occupations had a fatality rate less than three per 100,000.

- Men, with 12.4 deaths per 100,000 workers, are 30 times more likely to die on the job than women.

- Older workers are also much more likely to experience a workplace-related fatality (114.8 per 100,000 for those aged 65 and over) than younger workers.

- Newfoundland has by far the highest provincial rate of workplace fatalities with 11.7 per 100,000, which is nearly double the national average, and a situation which prevailed throughout the 1993-2005 period. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta had the next highest rates, while Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and New Brunswick had the lowest.