OTTAWA — Canada’s federal health agency is hiring a contractor to perform testing of water from 60 treatment plants and distribution systems across the country in an effort to gauge the levels of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) and potentially toxic contaminants at the tap, according to a March 17 article in The Canadian Press.

Health Canada, which issued a request for proposals on March 17, said the discovery of new DBPs “challenges the basis of our current mitigating strategies.”

The contractor also will need to collect data on emerging contaminants, such as pharmaceutical compounds and the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in polycarbonate water bottles, baby bottles and other food packing. Last year, Canada banned the chemical from baby bottles.

According to Health Canada’s RFP, “Some substances in this category have been identified as either known or suspected carcinogens and endocrine or reproductive disruptors. Limited surveys have shown that many of these compounds, thought to have significant health effects, can be present in Canadian drinking water.”

Study results are expected to address concerns raised by the scientific community about the quality of Canada’s drinking water.

A spokesman for Health Canada, which expects a final report on the study in 2011, is quoted in the article as saying, “The results from this study will help the department determine if new or emerging DPBs identified in the scientific literature are present in Canadian drinking water supplies and establish the priorities for guideline development.”

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