On April 27, Mr. Jim Smith, the Chief Drinking Water Inspector for the province of Ontario sent a letter to all municipal drinking water system operators outlining a problem with lead in the drinking water system which occurred in London, Ontario and requested follow up by local system operators.  During some repairs to the water mains in London, testing was done in areas known to contain lead pipes in the system.  Higher-than-recommended lead levels were identified, and in some cases these levels were not reduced by flushing.  As a result of this finding, the Chief Drinking Water Inspector requested that water system operators review their systems for possible lead service areas and do appropriate follow-up testing.  The distribution systems in Windsor-Essex are regularly tested for lead and this has not been identified as a problem.  As a result of the problem identified in London, further testing has been requested to identify lead pipes going from the distribution system into homes and possible lead service within homes.  Lead service is generally a function of the age of the home with homes built prior to 1952 having a greater possibility of lead pipes being used in the plumbing.

On May 9, I met with representatives of the water systems in Windsor-Essex both in person and by teleconference to review the request of the Chief Drinking Water Inspector.  All representatives indicated that they would be reviewing their systems and conducting follow-up testing as appropriate.  We will be meeting again on May 17 to review the plans of the system operators.

The West Nile Virus program for 2007 is underway.  Initial larval surveillance has begun utilizing the information obtained from the breeding habitat study conducted in 2006.  I will be meeting with GDG Environment and our municipal partners to review the ongoing surveillance program.

On May 16, the County of Essex will be conducting an emergency exercise.  The exercise will be coordinated by the County Emergency Planner and will involve the set-up of several of the municipal emergency operations centres.

On April 23, I testified in the Carl Leone trial.  In testifying for the prosecution, I reviewed the testing, counselling, and Section 22 process conducted by the staff of the Health Unit.  On April 27, Carl Leone unexpectedly changed his plea and pled guilty to 15 of the 20 charges laid against him.  In his plea, Carl Leone admitted that he had been tested in March of 1997 by the staff of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, had been found HIV positive, and had been counselled by the staff of the Health Unit.  He admitted that he knew he was HIV positive and ignored the counselling of both the staff of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit and the staff of the HIV Care Clinic at Windsor Regional Hospital.  I was particularly gratified with this admission as part of his defence was that he had been improperly counselled by Health Unit staff and did not realize he was HIV positive.  This admission fully vindicates the work of health unit staff.  He is scheduled for sentencing on May 11.

On May 4, I had the opportunity to attend the Canadian Forces Liaison Council Recognition Ceremony held at the University of Windsor.  Further to the motion passed at the last Board meeting, the Health Unit received a Certificate of Appreciation, which will be presented at the Board meeting.

A number of Board members have indicated they will be attending the alPHa conference at the Hilton from
June 10-12.  If other Board members would like to attend, there is still time to register.

Please note that I will be out of the office from May 18 through June 5.  I will be attending the International Society of Travel Medicine Conference in Vancouver and will be taking a week’s vacation.  In the event of an urgent matter, I will be able to be contacted through the pager service through the duty director.