Cancer society president calls for combined
action
By Steve MacInnis, CAPE BRETON POST
Governments and the community have to work more
closely and quickly to stem the growing tide of cancer
rates here in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
"We are devastated by the incidence rates of cancer here
when compared to the rest of Nova Scotia," said
Geraldeen Collins, president of the Sydney unit of the
Canadian Cancer Society.
In the past two past months, residents have been hit with
two health studies suggesting cancer rates here are
between 15 to 50 per cent higher than national and
provincial averages.
The studies have unleashed of flurry of responses from
Premier Russell MacLellan, who is calling for more studies,
to local activists demanding an immediate clean up of the
, considered Canada's, if not
North America's, worst toxic waste dump.
"Like others, we are having a difficult time digesting all this
information," said Collins, adding the issue will be on the
community agency¹s next meeting agenda set for Monday.
The release of the health studies one by Health Canada
and the second privately funded have not produced a
great onslaught of people seeking information but she
hopes the reports will serve as a wake up call.
"I think once people get over the initial shock of the
statistics they will hopefully be more inclined to give up
smoking, start following the Canada Food Guide and take
up exercise," said Collins.
Friday, October 23, 1998
The Halifax Herald Limited
Cancer experts hired
By AMY SMITH / Provincial Reporter
The province is calling in two cancer experts to review all the studies on high
cancer rates in Sydney.
Health Minister Jim Smith said Thursday the epidemiologists, who will come from
out of province, will complete their report by mid-November.
"Right now, we have several studies being spoken of," Mr. Smith said at the
legislature.
"I think we have to mesh them together and see what they really are saying."
The most recent study, released Tuesday, said Sydney residents are nearly 50 per
cent more likely than average Nova Scotians to develop cancer.
The study, conducted by Dalhousie University scientist Judy Guernsey, said both
men and women in the Sydney area seem to be at greater risk of a wide range of
cancers.
And last month, a Health Canada study said cancer is the No.1 killer in the
Sydney area.
"People are becoming increasingly concerned that the environment is an issue,
particularly in the Sydney area, not just on one street but in the community itself,"
Mr. Smith said.
"We have to address that."
NDP Leader Robert Chisholm said he has no problem with the cancer experts
weighing in but hopes the province will not rest on its laurels in the meantime.
"No question there needs to be additional studies ... but not as a delay tactic and
that's what this government is doing," Mr. Chisholm said.
Mr. Smith said the province is taking some steps to reduce possible causes of the
disease, such as increasing the number of Pap smear tests and stop-smoking
programs.
And the minister said there is a memorandum of understanding to clean up the
Sydney tar ponds, although he said it's unknown what effect the environment has
on the cancer rates.
"I don't think there's quite adequate information there, but that doesn't mean we
can't go ahead with cleaning it up," Mr. Smith said.
Locals have long blamed the tar ponds, which contain 700,000 tonnes of toxic
sludge, and the former coke ovens site as the sources of the high cancer rates.
Both Manning MacDonald, the minister responsible for Sydney Steel, and Mr.
Smith have said lifestyle is a factor.
But the latest study suggests lifestyle isn't the lone culprit.
During question period, NDP health critic Maureen MacDonald demanded to
know why the government pulled its funding for the study in 1996.
"Any withdrawal of funding had to do with the quality of the study," Mr. Smith
said.
But Ms. MacDonald said the $50,000 study was obviously good enough for its
outside sponsor, Electric Power Research Institute of California.
On Thursday, the health minister said he doesn't agree with Premier Russell
MacLellan's statement Tuesday that the newest study is sensationalized.
"It's good that the process is open," Mr. Smith said.
The premier said the epidemiologists will help the government get a clear handle
on what needs to be done.
"It's important to start getting some feedback on what direction we should be
going," Mr. MacLellan said.
The premier said he has a personal interest in this issue because he and his family
live in Sydney.
"Believe me, it's not something that I am posturing on," he said.
"I want to get to the bottom (of this). This has been 80 years of environmental
irresponsibility and we have to deal with it in the proper way."
In Ottawa, Reform MP Bill Gilmour demanded that the federal government move
residents away from the contaminated site.
"The people next to the coke oven site on Frederick Street must be relocated," he
said in a statement to the House of Commons. "You and I wouldn't live there.
Why should we expect them to?"
Referring to the latest study, Mr. Gilmour asked: "How much more evidence do
federal and provincial governments need to take action on this issue?"
- With Brian Underhill, Ottawa Bureau
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