• About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
Friday, June 2, 2023
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home *Opinion*

Belledune example demands action on environment and health in NB

by Inka Milewski
January 24, 2012
Reading Time: 2min read

The following is an open letter sent to New Brunswick Health Minister Madeleine Dubé and Environment Minister Margaret-Ann Blaney.

As the health department struggles to improve the health of New Brunswickers, why is the environment department allowed to undermine that effort by permitting industrial polluters to increase their release of toxic substances known to cause health problems?

In 2005, then Health Minister Elvy Robichaud released the results of a provincially-funded health study of residents in the Belledune area. The study found that industrial releases of metals to the air, water and land from 1967 to 2003 had increased the risk of cancer and non-cancer disease for local residents above provincial health guidelines. The study also found that mortality rates and rates of some cancers and other diseases were higher than those in the health region and the rest of the province.

The study could not link the high pollution in Belledune with high disease rates. Health officials believed that the lifestyle of Belledune residents was responsible for the higher diseases and mused out loud whether rates of tobacco-chewing were higher in Belledune than elsewhere. The minister vowed to do something; he announced another study on the lifestyle of residents.

The health department quietly shelved the study two years ago, and since 2005 emissions of arsenic from the smelter have increased six times, and mercury and cadmium releases have doubled. Data from Environment Canada’s pollutant release inventory (http://www.ec.gc.ca/inrp-npri) also reveals that releases of fine particulates, the dust particles known to cause cancer, cardiovascular, and other diseases, have almost tripled to 27 tonnes.

Since 2005 the environment department has allowed the smelter to process more secondary feed stock such as ash, slag, sludge and scrap glass from televisions and computer screens. In other words, it allowed the smelter to burn more trash. A recent provincial department of environment report states that the P-27 scrubber at the smelter has not met approved emission limits. Now, the environment department wants to allow the smelter to add more silver processing capacity in 2012, and claims the increased production will have little effect on emissions.

Yet, the smelter’s own reports to Environment Canada state that increased processing at the smelter are responsible for increased emissions.

Given that the health department has already identified Belledune residents as having a higher risk of death and disease than the rest of the province, and given that emissions at the smelter have increased significantly in the past five years, why has the department of health not intervened and required that the environment department order the smelter to cut its emissions? Why is the environment department proposing to allow the smelter to increase production without increasing the pollution control requirements on the facility?

I’m sure all New Brunswickers look forward to hearing the answers to these questions.

Tags: BelleduneenvironmenthealthInka Milewskismeltertoxins
ShareTweetSend

Related Posts

COMMENTARY: COVID-19 and tone policing
COVID-19

COMMENTARY: COVID-19 and tone policing

February 2, 2023

We often see suggestions that since a decent number of people survive Covid-19 infection without death or visible disability, people...

Province releases slew of documents on Sackville’s AIL pipe plant
Environment

Province releases slew of documents on Sackville’s AIL pipe plant

September 3, 2022

The provincial government has released more details about its decision not to require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the...

Wolastoqiyik women stop smallmouth bass poisoning in Miramichi Lake for now [updated]
Environment

Letter: Use of poison in Miramichi Lake and watershed a ‘tremendous waste of time and money’

August 9, 2022

As a regional biologist in Nova Scotia, starting in 1972, I was involved with several eradication programs that used a...

“Not the time for small goals”: Corbett calls for major forest management reform at Standing Committee meeting on glyphosate use
Environment

Advocates want environmental bill of rights to protect human health

July 27, 2022

Environmental groups in the province want legislation protecting New Brunswickers from harmful exposures to pollution-related illnesses associated with industrial development...

Load More

Recommended

COMMUNIQUÉ : Retour de bâton contre les personnes et les communautés 2ELGBTQQIA+

COMMUNIQUÉ : Retour de bâton contre les personnes et les communautés 2ELGBTQQIA+

7 days ago
COMMENTARY: Political will required to end poverty, food insecurity in New Brunswick

COMMENTARY: Political will required to end poverty, food insecurity in New Brunswick

4 days ago
COMMENTAIRE : La population Néo-Brunswickoise peine à manger

COMMENTAIRE : La population Néo-Brunswickoise peine à manger

4 days ago
COMMENTARY: Persecuted but resilient: The enduring impacts of police violence for Indigenous New Brunswickers

COMMENTARY: Persecuted but resilient: The enduring impacts of police violence for Indigenous New Brunswickers

22 hours ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In