‘Worse than Flint’: Canadians exposed to excessive lead in drinking water, investigation reveals
- Lack of standard rules and tests means water at some schools and day care centres contains so much lead it could affect children’s health
- Contamination in several cities worse than situation in Flint, Michigan, in the US, which is facing water crisis
Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have been unwittingly exposed to high levels of lead in their drinking water, with contamination in several cities consistently higher than they ever were in Flint, Michigan, according to an investigation that tested drinking water in hundreds of homes and reviewed thousands more previously undisclosed results.
Residents in some homes in Montreal, a cosmopolitan city an hour north of the US-Canada border, and Regina, in the flat western prairies, are among those drinking and cooking with tap water with lead levels that exceed Canada’s federal guidelines.
The investigation found some schools and day care centres had lead levels so high that researchers noted it could impact children’s health. Exacerbating the problem, many water providers are not testing at all.
It was not the Canadian government that exposed the scope of this public health concern.
A year-long investigation by more than 120 journalists from nine universities and 10 media organisations, including Associated Press and the Institute for Investigative Journalism at Concordia University in Montreal, collected test results that properly measure exposure to lead in 11 cities across Canada.
Out of 12,000 tests since 2014, one-third – 33 per cent – exceeded the national safety guideline of five parts per billion (ppb); 18 per cent exceeded the US limit of 15 ppb.