[All] Artificial sweeteners in Grand River

[John Jackson]

 December 11, 2013 
 Ontario's Grand River loaded with artificial sweeteners, study finds
 By IVAN SEMENIUK
 
 Scientists with Environment Canada and the University of Waterloo
repeatedly sampled 23 sites along the Grand River system as well as
household taps 
  

Ontario's Grand River is so chock full of artificial sweeteners that
scientists say the chemicals can be used to track the movement of treated
waste in the region's municipal water supplies.

Artificial sweeteners are used as sugar substitutes in diet drinks and
foods.

They impart no calories because they are not readily broken down in the
human digestive system, so they tend to exit the body intact.

But that persistence also means the sweeteners linger long after they are
flushed away.

They survive processing in waste-water treatment plants, find their way into
the environment and reappear in drinking water.

As part of a long-term study,1 scientists with Environment Canada and the
University of Waterloo repeatedly sampled 23 sites along the Grand River
system as well as household taps.

Four artificial sweeteners ­ acesulfame, saccharin, cyclamate and sucralose
­ were detected, in some cases at higher concentrations than reported
anywhere else in the world.

At one site, the researcher calculated that the equivalent of 90,000 to
190,000 cans of diet soda were being consumed each day to account for the
quantity of acesulfame they measured.

"If you think about all those cans of pop floating down the river, it's
quite an image," said Sherry Schiff, a biogeochemist at the University of
Waterloo and a co-author of the study, published Wednesday in the open
access journal PLOS ONE.

Nearly one million people live in the region, which includes the communities
of Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Cambridge and Brantford.

About half of those people rely on the Grand for their drinking water.

While the presence of the sweeteners in drinking water may come as an
unwelcome surprise to some, the authors say their main aim is to track the
chemicals as an indicator of where treated waste water is ending up.

This can help environmental researchers estimate exposures to other
chemicals, such as pharmaceuticals, that breakdown more quickly and are
harder to spot.

Although artificial sweeteners have been deemed safe for human consumption,
their impact on the environment is not well known.
References
1. www.plosone.org/article/info%3adoi%2f10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0082706
 
Globe and Mail
 

-- 
John Jackson
17 Major Street
Kitchener, Ontario N2H 4R1
519-744-7503


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