The Ordre des chimistes du Québec disputes the data released by the Ministry of Education concerning lead in school water and asks the government to redo its homework.
According to data released late Friday afternoon by the ministry, more than a third of the fountains and taps in public schools in Quebec contained too much lead and about two thirds “meet Health Canada’s new recommendation of five micrograms of lead per liter of water (5 µg / L) ”.
The press release states that “all schools in Quebec are secure”.
But the Ordre des chimistes du Québec questions the method used by the government and the results obtained.
In 2019, the Quebec government asked establishments in the public school network and private educational establishments to analyze the concentration of lead in drinking water using portable “Kemio Heavy Metals” devices.
The President of the Order of Chemists, Michel Alsayegh, deplores the use of this type of device, because there is “a significant risk of false negatives, which is worrying for the health of children and staff”.
“As early as 2019, when we met the office of the Minister of Education, we had doubts about the reliability of the results with this type of instrument,” said Mr. Alsayegh in an interview with The Canadian Press.
According to him, the “accredited, known and certified” method for the analysis of metals in water consists of carrying out the analysis with a “laboratory instrument and sending the samples to an accredited laboratory”, as has chosen to do so at the Montreal School Service Center, the former Montreal School Board (CSDM).
“In this case, we know that it is a result beyond any doubt,” said Michel Alsayegh.
For schools which have instead used the “Kemio Heavy Metals” device prescribed by the government, the President of the Order of Chemists recommends having all the tests which conclude in the absence of lead contamination in the laboratory to be validated in the laboratory. ‘water.
“This device does not measure total lead” and “we should not rely on its results to conclude that a water point is compliant and that we can continue to drink water from this water point there, ”Alsayegh said.
In the statement released Friday by the government, Louis Martel, director of the Center of Expertise in Environmental Analysis of Quebec, an agency of the Ministry of the Environment, affirms that “the analytical method using the Kemio Heavy Metals device that the ministry Education made available to the network can actually be used to determine the lead concentration in drinking water samples in a screening context ”.
However, for the president of the Ordre des chimistes du Québec, “a screening is not an accredited analysis” and the order therefore asks “that entries declared negative (in schools) be condemned until that an analysis in an approved laboratory has been carried out ”.
The Ordre des chimistes du Québec does not know in how many schools in the province the “Kemio Heavy Metals” device has been used.
The Canadian Press requested an interview with the Department of Education on Saturday afternoon, but it was not possible to obtain an immediate reaction.
In February 2019, a report from the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ) recommended that the government draw up a comprehensive portrait of the situation in schools and childcare services.
According to the INSPQ report, samples taken from 2013 to 2016 from 436 schools or daycares indicated that the standard of 10 µg / L was exceeded in about 3% of establishments.
In March 2019, Health Canada increased the recommended standard from 10 to 5 µg / L.
It was in the wake of the INSPQ report and the new recommendation from Health Canada that the Government of Quebec asked institutions in the public school network and private educational institutions to analyze the concentration of lead in potable water.