News About Health & Safety

• EVENT: March 11 - March 12, 2011
  World Plumbing Day on March 11 –

  World Plumbing Day, held March 11, 2011, is dedicated to helping the general public better understand the vital role the plumbing industry plays in protecting public health and safety, the extent to which it helps limit humankind’s environmental footprint and other important work performed by contractors, inspectors, installers, engineers and manufacturers that is often taken for granted. Learn more about events, activities and tools to help celebrate this global opportunity and discover the real difference that plumbing makes in the world.

• 01.07.11
  Effort stomps out dirty water –

  Karl Johnson, of Columbia, Mo., has enough shoes to fill a storage unit. While a collection of shoes is often seen as a symbol of excess and vanity, Johnson collects donations for Shoeman Water Projects, which resells the shoes and uses that money to buy equipment to provide clean water in Africa. Shoeman Water Projects uses the approximately 60 cents per pound it receives for the donated shoes to buy well-drilling rigs, water-purification systems and hand pump repair equipment to provide clean drinking water. Read more about how this organization is bringing clean water to more than 200,000 people in Kenya.

• 01.06.11
  “Water Tight” shines light on global water concerns –

  "With water seemingly cheap and plentiful, there has been little incentive to try to keep it small. But today, that’s changing," according to the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment. "Water pollution and freshwater supplies are the highest ranking environmental concerns for people around the world." Read how companies and citizens are motivated to reduce their water footprints.

• 01.05.11
  Obama Signs Bipartisan ‘Get the Lead Out’ Bill Into Law –

  President Obama signed into law the “Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act” (S 3874). This bipartisan bill modifies the Safe Drinking Water Act definition, uniformly reducing the lead standard for pipes, pipe fittings and plumbing fittings from as much as 8.0% to 0.25% across the nation, which is consistent with the current laws in California, Vermont and Maryland.

  Plumbing Manufacturers International (PMI) and its members successfully urged congressional leaders to expedite the bill's passage, provided significant direction and crafted a strategy to advance it through the legislative process. The law provides for a 36-month implementation period, after which time manufacturers and importers will be required to comply with the new, consistent standard.

  “It is an exciting victory, primarily for consumers, and also for the plumbing manufacturing industry, as well as for wholesalers, retailers, contractors and others involved with the production, distribution, sales and installation of these products,” says PMI Executive Director Barbara C. Higgens.

• 01.05.11
  Goal: Safe drinking water to 200 million people by 2027 –

  Blue Planet Run Foundation's (BPRF) founding goal was to bring safe drinking water to 200 million people by 2027. The Peer Water Exchange (PWX) was conceived by BPRF as a participatory decision-making system to select, fund, manage, monitor, and share grassroots water and sanitation projects worldwide efficiently, effectively and transparently. See how PWX creates a live knowledge-base of the work, the communication and the successes and failures from around the world.

• 12.31.10
  Water Quality Standards Regulatory Changes –

  “EPA is planning to propose a limited set of targeted changes to the water quality standards regulation to improve its effectiveness in helping restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters. EPA expects to publish a proposed rule in the Federal Register in summer 2011.”

• 12.29.10
  The world’s biggest public health story: Clean drinking water and sanitation –

  "The burden of disease costs the world USD $4.1 trillion each year (WHO) and lack of safe sanitation is the world’s biggest cause of infection. This makes it the world’s biggest public health story. Almost one-tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources," according to the Stockholm International Water Institute. Read more at SIWI.
  

• 12.24.10
  Better access to mobile phones than to toilets? –

  More people in the world own cell phones than have access to a toilet. Nearly one billion people – about one in eight – lack access to clean water and 2.5 billion people, don’t have access to a toilet. Every day, lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills thousands, leaving others with reduced quality of life. As cities and slums grow at increasing rates, the situation worsens. Read the facts, share the statics and learn more at water.org.

• 12.23.10
  Rosenthal Million Dollar Challenge surpasses annual funding goal for sustainable water, sanitation –

  The 2010 Rosenthal Million Dollar Challenge raised more than $1.3 million to continue the organization’s work in creating sustainable water and sanitation solutions in Africa, Asia, Central America, and South America. For the third consecutive year, philanthropists Stephen and Sandy Rosenthal committed $500,000 as a challenge to help multiply the impact of Water For People’s international efforts to bring long-lasting, safe drinking water resources and improved sanitation facilities in the developing world.

• 12.20.10
  PMI praises passage of “The Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act” –

  Plumbing Manufacturers International (PMI) and its members successfully urged congressional leaders to expedite the passage of “The Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act” (S. 3874). PMI provided significant direction and crafted a strategy to advance it through the legislative process.

• 12.15.10
  FOAM: A Framework to Analyze Handwashing Behaviors to Design Effective Handwashing Programs –

  FOAM, which stands for Focus on Opportunity, Ability, and Motivation, is based on behavioral determinants that either promote or constrain behavior change. Currently being applied by Water and Sanitation Program’s Global Scaling Up Handwashing Project in Peru, Senegal, Tanzania, and Vietnam, FOAM is intended for use by program managers implementing handwashing behavior change initiatives, as well as multilateral and bilateral agencies, academic institutions, and government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in water and sanitation.

• 12.14.10
  6 indictments against bottled water –

  The Daily Green reports that "Tap water's share of the bottled water market grew from 32.7% in 2000 to 47.8% in 2009 (the rest is spring water)," according Food & Water Watch, which based its analysis on of the bottled water industry's own data. "In all, 2.5 billion gallons of municipal tap water, which taxpayers pay to treat, is bottled and sold for $1 (or often much more) per gallon."

• 11.29.10
  Handwashing Database –

  Water & Sanitation Program Enabling Technologies for Handwashing with Soap Database – “An enabling technology is an external or environmental factor that influences an individual's opportunity to perform a behavior, regardless of their ability and motivation to act. Often overlooked in the design of handwashing initiatives, enabling technologies have been shown to facilitate handwashing behavior in several studies.” Search topics and technologies online.

• 11.24.10
  Producing food requires massive quantities of water –

  according to the Stockholm International Water Institute, and, "Agricultural production consumes 70%of water. As people are removed from poverty, they tend to consume higher quantities of water intensive foods, such as beef and dairy products. Based on today’s water productivity and consumption patterns, feeding the malnourished and additional 3 billion people expected in 2050 would require we triple that amount of water used in irrigation."

  Read more at SIWI.
  

• 11.23.10
  World Toilet Day: Top 10 Nations Lacking Toilets –

  World Toilet Day’s "big squat" was held worldwide on November 19, an initiative to bring awareness to the need for adequate sanitary facilities across the globe. Every day, some 1.1 billion people go to the bathroom without any type of toilet, according to the World Health Organization. And even with a toilet, facilities are not necessarily sanitary. WaterAid America estimates that roughly 2.5 billion people – nearly 40 percent of the global population – do their business unsafely, often in public spaces. World Toilet Day is "working toward eliminating the toilet taboo and delivering sustainable sanitation." See a list of the world's worst nations in terms of people lacking access to sanitary facilities.

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