Proof
of toxins sounds alarm
By TERA CAMUS
Cape Breton Bureau
Whitney Pier
Frederick
Street residents begged for help again Thursday after findings from a new
Environment Canada test reconfirmed unacceptable levels of several toxins.
"We have the
proof we are living on a contaminated street," a shaken Juanita McKenzie
said Thursday near her Whitney Pier home. "We feel that we should
not be subjected to the health hazards that we know are here while the
government does further testing and anaylsis of our bodies to find out
long-term and short-term effects of these dangerous toxins."
Those new
tests are now being done by the federal and provincial Health Departments
and results should be available by mid-August.
Cantox Environmental
Inc. has been hired to conduct a full health assessment. Workers
walked the neighborhood Wednesday to survey residents just after they received
the latest results from Environment Canada soil and water tests.
The 150-page
document pinpoints higher than acceptable levels of a variety of toxins.
The brook
on lower Frederick Street contains arsenic levels 13 times higher than
guidelines from the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.
The first test results measured 18 times higher.
The heavy
metal antimony was measured at 3.7 times above acceptable limits while
molybdenum and bensopyrene were six times higher than acceptable.
The railbed
is contaminating the brook upstream, which has 2.3 times the acceptable
limit of benzopyrene for residential property, 1.6 times the acceptable
level of napthalene, and two to three times more of other polyaromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs) than is acceptable.
The soil samples
also revealed higher than normal levels of lead, copper, molybdenum, napthalene
and other PAHs.
Dr. Jeff Scott,
chief medical officer for the province, issued a news release Wednesday.
"Based on
the test results so far, we do not believe the residents are at risk,"
he said. "We will, however, continue our work. Blood and hair
samples from many of the residents are being tested, with the results expected
shortly."
That response
angered residents. "With all the toxins that have been found ...
you can't say there's no health hazard," Ms. McKenzie said.
"How do we
know which chemical is going to do what to us?"
"The residents
called upon politicians and others in the community to speak up.
"We do not wish the street to be the death of us or our children.
Please, someone out there help us."
The residents,
who found a yellow ooze near the Frederick Street brook three months ago,
also reaffirmed their demand.
"Relocation
is the only acceptable option for the residents of Frederick Street," she
said.
Dan Yakemchuck,
chairman of Help CB, a new environmental group, agreed.
"We support
that. The average citizens in the area are affected, not only on
Frederick Street but everybody is affected. The brook and the tar
ponds runs through the middle of the city.
"It's a national
disgrace."
But Environmenta
Canada says moving people out of the contaminated area is not its job.
Spokesman Wayne Pearce says the department's mandate is to protect land
and animals, not people.
Mr. Pearce
said the Environment Department is not going to clean up the land or water
anytime soon.
"We can't
really run in there now and start remediating this area. We really
don't have enough information and it's part of a bigger picture.
We're following the process the CCME has set down for contaminated sites."
Please
support the residents of Frederick Street
and
Contact Nova Scotia's
PREMIER
RUSSELL MacLELLAN
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