The Canadian Press / file Parker Donham, spokesman for the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency, argues with Sierra Club members Mary Ruth MacLellan and Daniel Green at a media briefing in North Sydney in December.

By Paul Schneidereit / Staff Reporter

TOXIC CHEMICALS emitted when the coke ovens were operating can clearly be tied to some health problems in the Sydney area, says a spokesman for the provincial Sydney Tar Ponds Agency.

"I was in the coke ovens when it was operating and it's hellish. It's a horrible place," said Parker Donham.

"I think it's just common sense that the people who worked there, it had a serious impact on their health.

"It's (also) plausible that while the coke ovens were operating, it may have had an impact on the health of people who lived nearby. I don't think it's proven, but it doesn't seem to me a ridiculous hypothesis."

But, he said, scientific research over the last year has shown no significant risk threatens residents from the residue of a century of steel and coke manufacturing.

"I just don't think that there's much question left that proximity to the coke ovens and the tar ponds is a non-starter when it comes to the current health levels of people in this city," Mr. Donham said.

Ron Brecher, the toxicologist who peer-reviewed the chronic health risk assessment of the area north of the coke ovens, known as NoCo, says that report demonstrated that residents of the Whitney Pier neighbourhood were at no greater risk living there than in other urban communities across the country.

But, he said, "35 years ago, if you asked was this area the same as other urban areas, you might have gotten a very different answer because of the air issues."

Mr. Brecher said he'd have no concerns about living in Whitney Pier today, but he added: "I would still have concerns about the historical exposure."

Francis Sirois, a retired scientist and executive member of the Joint Action Group, the community-based body tasked with steering the cleanup project, says JAG has recommended that governments fund about 50 different projects to look at the impact that past exposures had on people's health.

"It's going to take years," Mr. Sirois said. "Some of these studies involve tracking the people and getting their entire history. It's a big job but they will be doing it."

The project's government partners - federal, provincial and municipal - will have to come up with about $10 million to fund the research, he said.

One of the largest of those potential studies - which would look at residents' past exposure to the pollution spilling from the coke ovens until their closure in 1988 - is being considered by Health Canada, says Don Ferguson, director general for the Atlantic region.

A companion study of Sydney, expected to cost several million dollars and take a couple of years to complete, has yet to be officially approved.