NEWS in brief
Great Lakes Waterkeepers and Waterkeeper
Alliance Urge Canadian Authorities to Ditch the
Great Lakes Nuclear Dump
Posted on May 27 2015 by Maia Raposo
Global Highlights
Soon, there will be a perfume strong enough to
counter stinky loos in India and Africa
By Andy Extance
Terrible toilets. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)
Groups Renew Plea to U.S. Secretary of State to Oppose Threat to Drinking
Water Supply for 40 Million People
NEW YORK, NY – May 27, 2015 – Environmentalists in
the Great Lakes Basin are opposed to a new report from a
Canadian Joint Review Panel that has called for the support
of the Canadian Minister of the Environment to approve a
deep geological repository for nuclear waste in Kincardine,
Ontario due to its proximity to drinking water supplies for
40 million people in the United States and Canada. The
proposed plan from Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is to
store underground radioactive nuclear waste less than one
mile from the shores of Lake Huron. Canadian officials are
getting closer to approving this hazardous project and could
even fast track the authorization of a final license within the
next few months.
Under the Binational Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
(amended in 2012), both Canada and the US acknowledge
the importance of anticipating, preventing, and responding
to threats to the waters of the Great Lakes. Both countries
share the responsibility and obligation to protect these
shared waters from pollution.
“Great Lakes Waterkeepers and Waterkeeper Alliance
oppose this project, which could threaten the drinking
water supply of 40 million Americans and Canadians,”
said Bob Burns, Detroit Riverkeeper. “We ask the U.S.
State Department to stand with the citizens, local and state
governments, and other stakeholders in the Great Lakes
Basin whose voices have not yet been heard but who are at
risk if the deep geological repository fails.”
Perfume chemists have devised a tool aimed at stopping foul
smells from undermining the struggle to improve sanitation
in developing countries.
A team from Swiss firm Firmenich—better known for
applying aroma expertise to perfumes and food—has
developed a system to quantify six major faecal aroma
chemicals at the same time in toilet air. The technique is
described in a paper published in Environmental Science &
Technology last month.
“This is to help make a perfume to cover the malodour,”
Christian Starkenmann, a chemist at Firmenich and one
of the study’s authors, said. Such perfumes would improve
conditions in public toilets that charge for use, supporting
a business model for building and maintaining sanitation
where it is lacking, he added.
Clara Rudholm, a programme officer at the Global
Sanitation Fund in Geneva, said the study was useful, while
stressing the importance of supporting behaviour change in
local communities, too.
The Firmenich scientists analysed sludge from latrines in
India, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa. They were unable
to collect a fully representative toilet smell using the first
method they tried: Holding a polymer-coated needle above
the sludge to absorb odorant chemicals. Specifically, this
technique could not capture sulphur-containing gases.
“What you smell in the toilet is the air, not the sludge,”
Starkenmann said. “To analyse the air is much more
difficult.”
Instead the team designed a system that pumps air from
above the latrine through a water-based solution that traps
sulphur-containing gases. Other odorant compounds also
dissolve in the water.
The scientists ran the water through two extraction steps
that collected all the odorants. They then got 40 Firmenich
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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • July - August 2015