Leaked report on the Great Lakes is a wake-up call

[Spiel]

Leaked report on the Great Lakes is a wake-up call

High levels of pollution pose a health threat. U.S., Canadian decision-makers keep public in the dark for fear of lawsuits, expensive cleanups, scientist says

 

WILLIAM MARSDEN, / The Gazette

Thursday, February 14

 

At least 9 million people living on the United States side of the Great Lakes basin may be in danger from high levels of chemical pollution, according to a secret study that has been withheld from the public.

 

The study was kept secret from the public for seven months until this week when it was leaked to the Centre for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C.

 

The 400-page study was done by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on behalf of the International Joint Commission, which oversees issues relating to the joint management of the Great Lakes.

 

The study shows there are 26 "areas of concern (AOC)," where there are elevated levels of illnesses that can be traced to pollution.

 

These areas of concern are spread out through all five of the Great Lakes with particular intensity in Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo. More than 9 million people live inside the boundaries of these AOCs.

 

The report states that illness in the populations "compares unfavourably ... with the U.S. population."

 

For instance, the report identifies elevated levels of infant mortality in 26 AOCs, and of premature births in four AOCs.

 

The study also identified 108 hazardous waste sites, of which 71 are or could be public health hazards.

 

Powerful lake currents can distribute the chemical and hydrocarbon pollutants including dioxins throughout the Great Lakes system and down the St. Lawrence River. Migratory marine life such as eels, which swim from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, also distribute the pollutants.

 

The study mirrors a series of reports previously done by Health Canada in the 1990s that revealed 17 Canadian AOCs, where there were elevated levels of illnesses that could be traced to pollution.

 

When the Canadian reports were printed in 1998 they also were kept from the public. In this case, Health Canada circulated them only to public health officials in the 17 AOCs.

 

One study was leaked to a reporter in Windsor, Ont., in 2000, forcing Health Canada to release the rest.

 

The Americans have claimed that their study was suppressed because the science was substandard.

 

Michael Gilbertson, a former International Joint Commission scientist who was one of three scientists to peer review the U.S. study, said the reasons behind the suppression were political.

 

"Their real reason is that in the States and also in Canada at the moment there is really a reluctance within the governments to acknowledge that there are any effects of these chemicals on fish or wildlife or on human health," he said.

 

Gilbertson said the governments are afraid of lawsuits and expensive cleanups.

 

"I mean you can find sources of chemicals in the environment," he said. "But if you actually find effects, this has a connotation of liability. Governments are extremely reluctant to allow their scientists to start making statements about the effects of chemicals on fish, wildlife or on humans. Particularly on humans."

 

The Canadian study, for example, found a series of outbreaks of Minamata disease in Thunder Bay, Collingwood, Sarnia and Cornwall. Minamata disease, which includes cerebral palsy among its symptoms, is caused by mercury poisoning.

 

Each of the affected areas had large chlor-alkali plants that used mercury for making chlorine. At various times between 1948 and 1995, these plants released 742 tonnes of mercury into the Great Lakes. Mercury dumped in Sarnia went down the St. Claire River to Lake St. Claire and then down the Detroit River to Lake Erie.

 

Canadian research has also found an inexplicable drop in the male-female ratio on the Aamjiwnaang Reserve near Sarnia. The number of male babies had dropped 40 per cent in the mid-1990s. The reserve is surrounded by 46 large chemical plants and refineries.

 

Furthermore, Health Canada studies showed, the Windsor area suffered from much higher mortality and morbidity rates than in the rest of Ontario.

 

The federal government and the province of Ontario launched a program in 2000 to reduce pollution in the Great Lakes.

 

So far, two areas - Collingwood and nearby Severn Sound - have been removed from the AOC list.

 

 

To see the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report go to www.publicintegrity.org/default.aspx