Toluene problem taken too lightly
Letter to editor from Anne Marie Ross
Cape Breton Post
Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003
I would like to thank the
province's chief medical officer,
Dr Jeff Scott, and Environment Canada
for not signalling a red light on
the stench that hangs over Whitney
Pier where I live. I really would like
to know how these people sleep at
night, tend to their children and
families, or even attend church services.
There are innocent children and
elderly folks who will suffer the
effects of toulene, a toxic chemical
that I believe is being released in the
air from the coke ovens site.
Dr. Scott or Environment Canada
will not admit that the problem is
serious enough to move people
because then they admit defeat.
Shame on all of them for playing
Russian Roulette with our children's lives.
It is inhumane to allow this to go
on. Our children deserve to live
healthy and to breathe air free from
toxic chemicals.
Toulene is a deadly chemical and
only one of many identified. There
will be more. Stop putting the blame
on tampering with air monitors.
The highest reading came from one
air monitor that sits near a day care
property on Henry Street in Whitney Pier.
Perhaps it was the little
day care children who tampered
with the monitors; maybe they
crawled over the barbed wire fence
at lunch time.
Stop playing with innocent lives.
Where are our officials? Come into
my community and watch our innocent
children suffer as they play in
chemicals and breathe toulene.
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