Environment committee  No, absolutely not. However, I want it to be clear that banning phosphorus in dishwashing detergents will not solve the problem.

Environment committee  There is no emergency. We have been putting phosphates in our dishwashing detergents for two generations now. If we need to take another year and a half or two to resolve the problem, I think that will be just fine. We should not necessarily be moving too quickly. Let us give the

Environment committee  Well, not for recreational lakes. In lakes that are not affected by agriculture, the problem actually revolves around the fact that septic systems do not block phosphorus. At the present time, there are no septic systems available that are able to block phosphorus. The ones that

Environment committee  Pardon me?

Environment committee  Would you like me to answer?

Environment committee  Indeed. Please do not cite Europe as an example to be followed. Europe is behind the United States and Canada when it comes to regulating phosphate concentrations in household products. Europe has replaced phosphates in laundry detergents and some other dishwashing detergents wit

Environment committee  There are replacement products. NTA, or nitrilotriacetates, and EDTA have replaced phosphorus in a number of different European products. We do not necessarily want to follow their lead. As I say, there are currently dishwashing detergents available on the market that do not cont

Environment committee  Perhaps. They are not scientific observations but, based on what consumers are saying generally, they work just as well without harming the environment. Those products already exist. The problem in Europe is that they replaced phosphorus in laundry detergents with products that p

Environment committee  That is an increase that exists only in your own mind. It is not a real increase. It is simply due to the fact that people are doing more monitoring now and reporting small algal blooms. I would remind you that algal blooms in Canada and the United States are not a public health

Environment committee  Yes, one person—a young boy who thrashed about in a golf pond infested with cyanobacteria, about 20 years ago. So, there has been one person. This is not a public health issue; it is an environmental protection issue, just as acid rain is. So, we should not be scaring people talk

Environment committee  I agree with it where hospitals are concerned, but for all other commercial facilities, I do not.

Environment committee  In hospitals and certain commercial facilities, it is very important that dishes be properly washed. I agree with the industry that, for that very reason, the best product is phosphorus. This is not as important an issue where household use is concerned, because there is no risk

Environment committee  As regards restaurants and hotels, I think that needs to be discussed. For the universities, it's not as important an issue. In any case, I would certainly exempt hospitals. There are always trade-offs and, since a choice has to be made, I would say that, at the very least, hospi

Environment committee  It is not just important, it is essential, if you want your bill to work, because trace amounts of phosphorus are found…

Environment committee  There are sodium citrate compounds that are an effective replacement for phosphorus. Tests have been conducted and the results were published in a number of Quebec and Canadian journals in recent months. Some of these products were considered to be as effective as detergents cont