A tool for calculating trace amounts of "down-the-drain" chemicals in southern Ontario surface water

What is it about?

Many personal care and cleaning products that are used every day are disposed of down-the-drain. What happens to these chemicals after they have been released? This paper discusses a tool to calculate the concentrations of these chemicals post-use for the southern Ontario geography. Concentrations are provided in influent, effluent, at drinking water intakes, and in-stream. The output files are in a database (.dbf) and a compatible format for visualizing on a map.

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Why is it important?

As far as the authors are aware, this is the first publicly available tool for conducting these calculations in Canada. It can be used for screening-level risk assessments and product stewardship activities.