Ontario warned of new chemicals in water

TORONTO — Ontario must do more to investigate whether potentially dangerous chemicals in the water supply coming from everyday shampoos, soaps and pharmaceuticals pose a threat to people's health and the ecosystem, the province's environmental commissioner says.

There is a pressing need for the province not just to monitor the spread of such chemicals, but to spend millions on research and get on top of the threat posed by pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller said.

The chemicals, which are showing up in water around the world, come from farm activity, antibiotics or other discarded medication that is poured down the toilet or sink, medication found in human waste, and run-off from antibacterial soaps and shampoos.

They travel through the septic system and can make their way back into source and drinking water because sewage treatment plants are not equipped to get rid of them.

In her recent annual report on Ontario's drinking water, Environment Minister Laurel Broten highlighted PPCPs as an emerging threat and said the province is doing a “survey” to find out how much of the chemicals are in the province's water.

But Mr. Miller – who warned about the threat of pharmaceuticals in his 2005 annual report – said that is not enough. The province should put millions into investigating the impact the chemicals are having on animals and their ecosystems to determine what they might do to humans, Mr. Miller said in an interview.

“We tend to focus primarily on human health,” he said. “That's important, but the alarms go off too late if you're already poisoning people.”

It's an increasing problem that the province needs to get on top of, he added.

“We have to spend some money now to find out what's going on.”

The threat is only going to grow, Mr. Miller said, as the population continues to grow, people use more medication and the baby boomers age.

Maureen Carter-Whitney, research director with the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, said scientists are still trying to determine just what impact pharmaceutical chemicals can have on both humans and animals.
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