Professor John Robertson OBA
Today, in the Guardian, this shocking report for readers, in England and probably Scotland too because no one will tell them otherwise:
The safety of tap water in the UK could be at risk because water companies are unable to use products to clean it, industry insiders have said, as all the laboratories that test and certify the chemicals have shut down.
People in the industry have called it a “Brexit problem” because EU countries will share laboratory capacity from 2026, meaning that if the UK was still in the EU, water companies would be able to use products that passed tests on the continent.
But UK rules mean products cannot be tested abroad; they have to be tested in the country in a certified lab, of which there are now none.
Gosh, that is so worrying but, wait, what about Scotland? On 9th January 2024:
Scottish Water has become the first water company in the UK, and one of the first in Europe, to be awarded accreditation for a new method of detecting viruses in water.
The utility, which provides 1.51 billion litres of clear, fresh drinking water to customers every day, has received accreditation from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) for a new method which will be used to detect potential for viral contamination in water at its laboratories in Edinburgh and Inverness. https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/About-Us/News-and-Views/2024/01/090124-Somatic-Coliphages-UK-First#:~:text=Laboratory%20Team%20Member,laboratories%20in%20Edinburgh%20and%20Inverness.
I know, I know, if the Jocks break away, England will punish them by just letting their own drinking water poison everyone.
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Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I read the article this morning. It’s so frustrating that every guardian article lazily refers to Britain. I’m grateful to you for the response as I tried searching for info on Scotland’s testing but couldn’t find anything. Great work from you and Scottish water.
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Thanks for reminding us of this, John. The Gusrdian belief that UK=England continues to be unshakeable.
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This ignorance by the British Media of anything outwith England is a result of ”something in the water ”, surely ?
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Further distortions of context from Helena Harker in the article is over certified laboratories – The first is EU regulation (which no longer applies), the second ” There used to be three such laboratories in the UK, but since 2021 there have been none as they all shut down because they are expensive to run ” – Most all laboratories in the UK were government or LA owned since WW2, successive Tory governments sold them off – The shutdown of the last 3 in England was post Brexit, no prizes for guessing which prize idiots were in charge with the “can’t afford it fairy ” doing encores…
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Hear, hear…prize idiots.
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The lab in Scotland has received accreditation for a new method of detecting viruses in water.
The Guardian article is about labs, or the absence thereof, with accreditation to test CHEMICALS that can safely be added to water to clean it.
Just because a lab has gained accreditation for one thing it does not mean it is accredited for all tests.
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The infant and maternal mortality fogures are one of the markers picked by Professor of Geography at Oxford, Danny Dorlingas significant in identifying societies which are failing to care for many of their population. He categorizes area by statistics such as this to identify places of high inequality. Tobthrir shame the US and UK have rising figures in these areas, along with a stalling, or failure to improve in overall figures for life expectancy. I think he recognizes Scotland is doing better than England on many of these figures, though not life expectancy for historical reasons. In England and the US, these are going down. That is scandalous in a rich country!
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