아래는 Canada's National Observer의 11월 29일자 기사입니다.
최근 문제되고 있는 캐나다의 석면시멘트 파이프의 훼손으로 석면이 검출되는 수돗물의 우려에 대해 의회에서 논의하고 규제방안을 찾아야 된다는 내용입니다.
캐나다는 현재 노동자들의 석면 흡입에 대한 규제는 있지만, 먹는 물에는 그렇지 않다.
하지만, 미국은 20여년간의 연구 끝에 1992년 EPA에서 음용수에 대한 석면 최대 농도를 1리터당 7백만개의 기준으로 규제하고 있으며, American Cancer Society는 석면을 삼키는 것과 석면시멘트 파이프를 흐르는 물의 위해성을 경고하고 있다.
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On Nov. 9, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May tabled a parliamentary petition on an issue few Canadians are even aware of — asbestos cement pipes.
Canadians deserve to know a lot more about how water is delivered to homes, schools and businesses across the country. National Research Council studies state that as these aging pipes deteriorate, they shed asbestos fibres into the water, and this comes with cancer risks.
Asbestos is not regulated in Canadian water, so very few municipalities test for asbestos, even as the pipes break more and more frequently.
Not so, south of the border.
Following two decades of study, in 1992, the United States Environmental Protection Agency regulated asbestos in American drinking water. It established a maximum contaminant level of seven million fibres per litre of water. The present-day American Cancer Society website warns of the hazards of “swallowing asbestos” and “water that flows through asbestos cement water pipes.”
Canada regulates and protects workers from inhaling asbestos because it causes cancer but so far, Health Canada denies carcinogenicity of waterborne asbestos. How can swallowing asbestos from old water pipes cause cancer in Americans and not Canadians?
The Canadian study that states chrysotile asbestos fibres from the old pipes can pose a hazard of cancer originated from a $30-million National Research Council centre in Regina. The Saskatchewan capital was referred to as a “living laboratory” because it had 600 kilometres of asbestos cement water pipes. The NRC’s “Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure Research” quietly closed its doors years ago, without warning the public of the potential danger.
Health Canada says its 10 studies of asbestos cement pipes and drinking water are not relevant to health because they focused on infrastructure. True, our world-class federal government scientists addressed “exposure” to a carcinogen; now it is up to Health Canada to fill the scientific gap, linking it to health.
So, Health Canada is now revisiting its 1989 decision not to regulate asbestos in water. Much has changed over a third of a century, including research showing that asbestos migrates throughout the body, appearing, for example, in urine and in liver bile duct tumours. This reassessment could take up to three years.
Statistics Canada is carrying out an inventory of asbestos cement water pipes in the country. That inventory is expected to be complete by the end of 2024. As May pointed out, these measures need to be expedited. Many, if not all, parliamentarians are serving constituents who drink water from asbestos cement pipes.
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Asbestos cement water pipes petition tabled in House of Commons
