Frederick Street
residents not considered to be at risk
BY STEVE MACINNIS
Cape Breton Post
Residents
living on a contaminated Sydney street are scheduled to meet tonight with
the province's chief medical officer to review the latest round of testing
results.
Hair and blood
samples taken from some 40 residents on Frederick Street do not indicate
they have toxic levels of arsenic and lead in their systems.
The residents
decllined to comment on the results until after tonight's meeting with
Scott and a representative from Cantox Environmental Inc.
Cantox was
hired by the federal and provincial governments to conduct a health risk
assessment study on the street and a final report is scheduled to be presented
during tonight's meeting.
In a letter
to residents, Scott concluded that based on the results, they area not
in any immediate danger of risk to their health.
"I am pleased
that the test results have concluded that the residents face no immediate
health risk from lead and arsenic in the area," said Scott.
Soil and water
samples on the street have shown elevated levels of arsenic and lead but
did not definitively identify the source of the contamination.
Residents
like Debbie Ouelette, Juanita McKenzie and Ron McDonald all point to the
former coke ovens site located a few hundred metres from their homes.
The site is
now part of a remediation project being undertaken by the Joint Action
Group (JAG) - a community-based organization mandated to develop a remediation
plan for the .
The watershed
area is considered by many to be the worst industrial toxic waste dump
in North America; it was created after nearly a century of unregulated
dumping from steel manufacturing.
Frederick
Street residents have demanded that they be relocated and the hair and
blood test results are not expected to change that demand.
Scott said
the Cantox study noted exactly what risks residents are facing in living
next to such a site and offers some recommendations. He declined
to get into the specifics of the report until after his meeting with the
residents.
"This is their
(the residents) asseessment and I want the opportunity to explain the results
to them first," he said.
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Frederick Street and/or Contact
Juanita McKenzie, spokesperson for Frederick Street