Elevated sodium concentrations in Australian drinking water supplies

Salt in the drinking water of many Australian water supplies could be adversely contributing to the ill-health of many people. Health care professionals often recommend low-sodium diets for patients with kidney disease, heart disease and cardiovascular disease. It is recommended that people on a low-sodium diet drink water with less than 20 mg/L of sodium. The sodium concentration of water supplies in many regional and remote regions of Australia often had water with elevated sodium (more than 20 mg/L) in their water supplies. In NSW 17 of the 21 regional water supplies tested had higher than 20 mg/L sodium. The issue of elevated sodium in many Australian drinking water supplies needs to be recognised more prominently. Sodium needs to be sampled more frequently and the results shared openly with consumers and health professionals. All water authorities that provide drinking water with sodium concentrations higher than 20 mg/L should be advising their customers of this fact as a high priority. People on low-sodium diets that have >20 mg/L sodium in their water supply should consider options to obtain low-sodium water

Dust and noise levels in a teaching padiatry laboratory

The use of Podiatry services is increasing and the exposure to dust and noise in Podiatry facilities has not been well documented in the literature. Concern for exposure to dust and noise has been raised due to the amount of particles seen when grinding and sanding custom moulded shoe inserts. Shoe inserts are made from a range of materials including polypropylene, polyurethane foams, ethylene/acetate copolymers, vinyl acetate and aluminina trihydrate. Monitoring for PM2.5, PM10 and noise was undertaken in a teaching podiatry laboratory on two days to ascertain if they were at a level hazardous to health. In addition the ventilation system was assessed to determine if the capture velocities were sufficient to determine if the current ventilation system is sufficient to control the potential hazards. Because the laboratory is used by a variety of students during the day, static monitoring was undertaken in preference to personal sampling so that a broad range of exposures could be determined. The results of the dust monitoring shows that the levels of PM2.5 and PM10 were within levels considered adequate from a public health viewpoint although peaks did occur during the clean-up of the laboratory. Noise monitoring highlighted that although the average levels were acceptable there is concern that a number of machines have noise levels exceeding 80 dBA. The ventilation system was assessed from a qualitative (smoke tubes) and quantitative (velocity measurements) viewpoint, and because of the action of the spinning wheels and belt it was determined that they were not adequat