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Bob Layton: Going over like a lead balloon

Click to play video: 'Bob Layton’s editorial: Nov. 8'
Bob Layton’s editorial: Nov. 8
WATCH ABOVE: In his latest editorial, Bob Layton talks about a recent investigation looking into lead levels in Canadians' drinking water. – Nov 8, 2019

Well, that was a shock this week to hear about the high levels of lead in many people’s drinking water.

I wonder if we’ll see more people at the store buying water in those big jugs.

We now know we have lead in some drinking water many times higher than what health guidelines prefer.

Were you surprised to find out about this? Did you find it odd that the test results were not publicly available? The obvious question is — why not? Don’t we have a right to know if there’s a problem with what we are drinking, so we can fix it?

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It’s good to know Epcor is planning to take action.

As I looked at the health concerns of too much lead in water, and especially its effect on children, I remembered being told in my school days that the Roman Empire maybe fell because of the contaminated water from their historic lead-lined aqueducts — that lead poisoning destroyed their brains.

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More modern studies would indicate there was more to it than just the lead, but don’t you think the Romans would like to have had that information?

What about us? Don’t we have a right to know?

Let me know what you think.

Bob Layton is the news manager of the Corus Edmonton group of radio stations.

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