Lead in Toronto Water

There has been a ton of publicity in toronto lately about lead in the water. There has always been this problem, but it is nice that they are finally bringing this serious problem to light.

I wrote an article about the city tap water a while back and how they should be congratulated for the great job at disinfecting the water from Lake Ontario. I sent it to all the papers but not one had the balls to publish it. Click HERE to read this factual and informative article on city tap water.

Many people are not aware that homes built prior 1975 commonly used lead pipes and lead solder. The city has done its best to replace many of these pipes but then only half way to the home from the street. It then is the home owners responsibility to replace the pipe the rest of the way. This is very expensive and if the person can’t afford to do this they will have lead in their water.

Also many people are not even aware of the lead pipe running to their home, or of the lead solder in the copper pipes. Then there is also some lead in the drinking water anyways.

As you can read in the article I wrote, the city does the best they can to bring you water as safe as possible. There are over 2300 identified toxic chemicals in the water and they do not have the resources to test for them all.

The main concern is the fact that scientists have no idea what the mix of these chemicals will do to our health over time. People flush their medication down the toilet, wash their paint brushes, dump gas and oil from lawn mowers and snow blowers down the drain and the list goes on. How can we know what happens when we mix prozac with oil and lead and some of the toxic chemicals the city adds to the water to disinfect it? What could this mix do to use over time? Scientists have no clue and no idea where to start.

Now there is the new problem, possibly even more alarming about our water. Because of the 51 billion plastic water bottles we north Americans are burying into the ground every year, there is now micro plastics in all of our water. The city can’t do a thing about that.

Only a quality water purifier will make your family safe from lead, plastics and all of the cancer causing agents in our tap water. Even Health Canada openly admits there are THM’s in municipal treated tap water. They are aware that THMs are a known carcinogen. The city has no choice but to chlorinate our water. It is the least of the two evils. Either we die today from  a waterborne disease, or 30 years from now from cancer. The CanAm 6 stage washable ceramic purifier cartridge will remove over 99% of lead.

For as little as 299.00 you can protect your family from lead, toxic chemical, chlorine resistant microbes and micro-plastics.

If you have the time, below is some informative info on plastic in our drinking water. I was blown away when I read that scientists predict that by the year 2050 there will be more plastic water bottles in our oceans than fish.

If you are buying water in bottles you should know that you are paying over ten times more money than making fresh purifier water right at home and contributing to a toxic world for our children to live in. We can all make a small difference now.

Thank you for reading this.
Ron Geyer
President of CanAm Wellness

Articles of interest:
https://canamwellness.com/lead-in-drinking-water/
https://canamwellness.com/lead-poisoning-what-you-should-know

Plastics in our water

Plastic pollution has become an urgent, worldwide problem. The average person now ingests about 100 plastic particles each year from eating shellfish and up to 68,415 plastic fibers each year just from the plastic dust particles landing on their plates during meals. Tap water, bottled water and sea salt also come with a “side order” of microplastics.

Many of the chemicals used to make plastics disrupt hormones, embryonic development and gene expression, and are linked to obesity, heart disease and cancer.

Marine animals are also gravely affected. Microbeads, tiny plastic pellets that consumer product industries put in body washes, facial scrubs and toothpaste, now fill the bellies of sea animals and act as a sponge for other toxins. The death toll grows.

The Bane of Microbeads

In 2008, researchers from the University of New South Wales in Sydney showed that tiny plastic particles don’t simply pass through sea creatures unnoticed, as was once thought. Using mussels as an example, the study revealed that ingested microplastics first accumulate in the gut but, within three days, travel to the circulatory system where they remain for more than 48 days.

According to a 2016 National Geographic report, as many as 4,360 tons of microbeads were used in personal care products sold in the European Union in 2012, all of which were flushed down drains and ended up in waterways. One-third of the fish caught in the English Channel contain microbeads, as do 83 percent of scampi sold in the U.K.

Microfibers from clothing also seriously contribute to plastic pollution. When they are released into waste water systems during washing, the irregular shape of these plastic particles renders them more difficult for marine life to excrete than other microplastics. In addition to physical blockages and chemical poisoning, microfibers consumed by marine life can cause the animals to feel artificially full, eat less and ultimately starve to death.

All Types of Plastic Pollute the Oceans

Microplastic is the worst kind of plastic, says oceanographer Laurent Lebreton, who appears in the documentary because it can, and does, invade the entire food chain from honey and beer to bottled water, tap water and salt. A big challenge in containing plastic damage is keeping the larger plastic pieces from degrading into microplastics says Lebreton.

Approximately half of the plastic in the Great Pacific garbage patch is fishing nets says Lebreton, displaying the unsightly clusters to the camera. In the middle of the clusters are massive “knots” of plastic twice or three times the size of beach balls which, despite their heft, are able to float.

Finding production codes on the plastic debris is useful in understanding their source and their behavior, says Lebreton, noting that one piece of plastic debris The Ocean Cleanup has collected has a production code from the 1970s.

Another piece of plastic that Lebreton displays for the camera, the size of a baseball, had been in the ocean so long, coral had wrapped around it. Yes, plastic is actually changing the ecostructure of oceans.

Harm to Animals

Many colorful plastics are thought by marine life to be “food” says Lebreton in the documentary, and he displays plastic pieces with teeth marks where animals have pathetically sought to “feed” and ended up with bodies full of plastic.

Lest anyone doubt the harm ocean plastic is wreaking on marine life, employees in the documentary are shown a videotaped autopsy of a sea turtle. Sure enough, as it is sliced open, plastic bags and other plastic objects are retrieved from the turtle’s body –– greasy, black and lethal to the turtle being autopsied.

“This is 30 seconds of what was a four-hour autopsy” of four turtles, explains an Ocean Cleanup employee who was involved with the autopsy. “When we opened them up, the conditions were awful,” and all the cases of their deaths “were related to plastic.” “You are not just here for what the world says, you are here to save animals and they will thank you for that,” he concludes to applause.

Beyond Cleanup –– Plastic Use Itself

For years I have suggested that plastics should not be single-use and that people should recycle more. The truth is, recycling has been a dismal failure, especially in the U.S. Even as the realities of plastic pollution loom larger than ever, recycling rates remain disappointing in the U.S. and much of the world.

In the U.S., over 260 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) are generated annually, but only 90 million tons of this MSW are recycled or composted, making up a recycling rate less than 35 percent. That’s down from 37 percent in 1995. In other words, even though plastic production and pollution are way up, recycling is less common than it was 24 years ago.

Even though most plastic water and soda bottles are made from highly recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET), most such bottles end up littering oceans and landfills because people fail to recycle them. The Guardian reported that fewer than half of the plastic bottles purchased in 2016 were recycled, and only 7 percent were made into new bottles.

In contrast, Norway recycles up to 97 percent of its plastic bottles, the spoils of an environmental tax that plastics producers in the country must pay if they don’t reach a recycling target of 95 percent or more. Producers who meet the target recycling rate do not have to pay the tax, which most accomplish by attaching a deposit of about 15 to 30 cents to every plastic bottle.

Reverse vending machines are found all over Norway, in schools, grocery stores and more, making it easy for consumers to bring their plastic bottles back for recycling and the return of their deposit.

The Spin of Plastic Manufacturers Should Be Ignored

Plastic manufacturers tout the merits of plastics in helping food to stay fresh longer, travel longer distances and avoid contamination but environmentalists know that a better solution is that people buy “local,” purchase sensible amounts of food that don’t go to waste and use reusable containers in home fridges to avoid disposable plastics.

In the U.S., the idea of attaching deposits to plastic bottles has been suggested but lobbied against by manufacturers who worry the increase in price could affect their sales. Even in areas where bottle return centers have been built, like California, they haven’t been widely frequented, and in fact have dwindled in numbers by 40 percent over the last two years.

Certainly, properly recycling plastics, and better yet, opting for items that are not sold in plastic containers to begin with, refusing straws and bottled water, and using refillable bottles and coffee mugs are simple ways to reduce plastic pollution. Nor has The Ocean Cleanup’s project ignored the problem of recycling existing plastic objects, observes Fast Company:19

“The long-term plan is to recycle all the plastic collected into items like car bumpers, chairs and eyewear, and for companies to sponsor each boom with prominent logos. That will help defray the cost, he says. It’s a fail-proof, wonderfully imaginative, scheme. We’ll just have to hope it’s as seaworthy as Slat imagines.”

Addressing Food Plastics Is Not Enough

Luckily, many are now aware of the harm of plastic bags, plastic containers, plastic straws and bottled water. Many are now using refillable bottles and coffee mugs are other simple ways to reduce plastic. Still, fewer people are aware of the significant harm to our oceans from the microfibers in their clothing.

People may believe by avoiding plastic food-related items they have done all they can to help with plastic pollution without looking at their clothing at an important source of plastic pollution. For example, a synthetic jacket may release up to 2.7 grams (250,000 microfibers) with each washing. Wastewater treatment plants filter 65 percent to 92 percent of microfibers, which isn’t enough to prevent environmental pollution.

One “solution” to the microfiber pollution problem would be to install filters in washing machines — similar to lint traps in dryers — that could catch the fibers prior to them being released with the wastewater. The problem with this solution, however, is what becomes of the microfibers when they’re disposed of in landfills? Clearly the plastic pollution problem persists.