Money for health initiatives could have funded cohort studies, say JAG volunteers
By Tanya Collier Macdonald
Cape Breton Post
Sat., May 22, 2004
SYDNEY - Founding members of the Joint
Action Group are furious that
money that could have helped
answer important health questions
is being directed elsewhere.
Francis Sirois, a JAG volunteer,
said $330,000 recently
announced by government to
pay for a series of healthy
initiatives within the Cape Breton
District Health Authority is
around the same amount needed
for a cohort study members
have demanded for years.
The study would have delved
into more than 10,000 occupational
and medical files from
steelworkers who worked at the
Sydney steel plant and, coke
ovens site.
The epidemiological effort
was endorsed by the steelworks,
family members and the
United Steelworkers of America.
The plan was to investigate
exposures and link them to subsequent
health impacts experienced by workers at the plant.
Dr. Judy Guernsey, a
researcher at Dalhousie University
in Halifax, was prepared to do the work in 2000 but
couldn't secure funding, said
Sirois. At that time, the study
was expected to cost between
$300,000 and $350,000 and completed
over a three-year period.
In 1998, Guernsey authored
a study entitled The Risk of
Cancer in Sydney, Cape Breton
County, Nova Scotia 1979-1995.
It showed that Sydney had a 50
per cent higher cancer incidence
rate than the rest of
Nova Scotia. The second step
was the cohort study, said
Sirois.
JAG members pressured
government to fund the effort
but were denied the money
nearly one year ago - just days
before government partners
declined to continue financially
supporting the community-driven group.
In a letter dated May 26, 2003,
and authored by David Darrow,
the chair of the executive committee
that controlled the $71 million
cost-share agreement to
fund work for the Sydney tar
ponds and coke ovens sites, it
was stated that government
was unable to "accommodate
the request."
He also wrote that if additional
funding was made available for
health-related initiatives, it would go toward
"health outcomes of Sydney
area residents in the future.
"In fact, an approach is
already being made to the Cape
Breton District Health Authority
to determine what opportunities,
if any, might exist for
future collaboration on initiatives
intended to produce such
a result," wrote Darrow. "The
health studies working group
will be kept appraised of our
efforts in this regard."
Sirois said JAG members
were not consulted before
government announced the health
initiatives reported in Thursday's
Cape Breton Post and paid
for with money left over from
the cost-share agreement.
Although JAG is no longer
supported by government dollars,
it continues as a non-profit
registered society.
Thursday, JAG forwarded e-mails
to more than 450 individuals
across Canada asking help
in identifying potential
researchers, universities and
organizations that might be
interested in funding and
performing the study.
The e-mail stated that JAG
members feel the cohort study
would be a benefit, not only for
the Sydney area, but also in
other similar heavy industry
areas across the country.
tcmacdonald@cbpost.com
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