I offer this as a global response to Keith Hudson's commentary on private accountability (bankrupt steel mills taken over by governments who then become liable for their environmental clean-up), wait and see attitudes to public environmental disasters, and completely spurious approach to handling scientific information of broader policy interest, among others... MG ----- Original Message ----- From: "Parker Donham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2001 5:27 AM Subject: [Parker-L] [PBD 7-15-01] Maybe seals caused the arsenic > 15 July 2001 > Halifax Daily News > Parker Barss Donham > > > Let's not be hasty. > > Just because the Sydney Steel coke ovens dumped more than 700,000 > tonnes of arsenic-laden sludge into Sydney Harbour over the last 100 > years, there's no scientific proof this played any part in the unsafe > levels of arsenic showing up in area children. > > Just because the steel plant and the coke ovens showered adjacent > neighbourhoods with additional thousands of tonnes of cancer-causing > chemicals every year for a century is no reason to think this has > anything whatever to do with Sydney residents having the highest > cancer rates in Canada. > > Just because toxic slag from the steel plant was used as fill for > residential construction in surrounding neighbourhoods for decades is > no cause for leaping to wild conclusions about possible ill-effects on > public health. > > Just because federal and provincial health inspectors have checked > residents for only two of the twenty-odd notorious carcinogens Sysco > spewed into the air and groundwater for the last 100 years, and just > because their tests come up positive only if exposure occurred within > the last 72 hours, is no reason to suspect public health and safety > are not uppermost in their minds. > > Just because inspectors didn't bother to test soil samples in > Sydney's middle-class North End, far closer to the tar ponds than > Whitney Pier, is no reason to think they were trying to confine the > problem to the poor, marginalized neighbourhoods of the Pier. > > Just because the Nova Scotia Department of the Environment let > Sobey's and its affiliate, Empire Theatres, build a supermarket and a > theatre complex on filled-in sections of the tar ponds estuary doesn't > mean they weren't being vigilant. > > People have been quick to ridicule Health Minister Jamie Muir for > insisting dangerous levels of arsenic found in five Sydney children > "may have absolutely nothing to do with the tar ponds." > > Muir is a minister of the Crown. He has certain responsibilities. He > can't go running off half-cocked the first time some radical > environmentalist dreams up a cockamamie theory that the worst > industrial waste site in Canada -- with 35 times more pollution than > the Love Canal -- is harming the people living in its midst. > > Oh, sure. Bring out the pregnant mothers. Parade the tainted toddlers > before the cameras. Go for the cheap shot. Tug on the heartstrings. > > As Muir was quite right to point out, some of the poisoned babies > live more than a kilometre from the tar ponds. A kilometre! That's a > thousand metres away -- almost a three-minute walk! > > Muir's government was elected on a solemn promise not to spend any > money in Cape Breton. He can't start writing cheques, moving people > hither and yon, the first time someone has a beef about yellow > cancer-causing goo seeping into their basements from a civil service > steel mill. > > What's he supposed to do? Move everyone in the whole Cape Breton > Regional Municipality into Point Pleasant Park? Who's going to pay for > that? Not those good-for-nothing steelworkers or coal miners, that's > for sure. > > This province is practically bankrupt. The worst thing Muir could do > would be to act precipitously and move families before he has all the > facts about what's poisoning their babies. > > At this point, the popular notion that the coke ovens and the tar > ponds are affecting public health is nothing more than a theory. > Documents obtained under the Access to Inanity Act show Muir's > department is actively exploring several other possibilities: > > -- <B> The Bruno Marcocchio-Mafia Connection <N> -- Investigators > suspect Bruno Marcocchio may only be posing as a mild-mannered > environmentalist truly concerned about pollution. He may actually be > fronting for a Sicilian drug cartel anxious to gain control of the > Sysco piers, whose heavy lift cranes would be ideal for importing > tonnes of drugs into North America. RCMP labs are checking to see > whether baby food in Sydney supermarkets was salted with arsenic to > sow panic. > > -- <B> The Seal Theory <N> -- Federal authorities banned lobster > fishing in Sydney Harbour 25 years ago. (They may be slow to protect > babies, but when lobsters are threatened, bureaucrats act decisively.) > Cod eat lobster larvae. Seals eat tonnes upon tonnes of cod, and they > are known to defecate right in the water. Arsenic and other pollutants > could be working their way up the food chain in this insidious manner. > Children swimming and even playing along the water's edge could be > exposed though their skin. DFO is weighing the merits of a seal cull > to protect the children of Whitney Pier -- but fearful of a backlash > from animal rights groups. > > -- <B> The Blowing Smoke Theory <N> -- Second hand smoke is known to > contain arsenic. The provincial cabinet occasionally meets in the > provincial building on Prince Street, less than a kilometre from where > some of the poisoned children live! Coincidence? Investigators think > not, especially in light of cabinet's recent performance. They suspect > the youngsters may have been exposed to fumes from whatever Muir and > cabinet colleague Jane Purves have been smoking. > > To find the real culprit will require more testing. To act before all > the facts are known would be to put political expediency ahead of > science. > > <I> Copyright (C) 2001 by Parker Barss Donham ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). > All rights reserved. <N> > > > -- > Parker Barss Donham > 8190 Kempt Head Road, Kempt Head, Nova Scotia, B1X-1R8 > Phone: (902) 674-2953; Halifax: (902) 423-7714 > _______________________________________________ > Parker-l mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mix.twistedpair.ca/mailman/listinfo/parker-l >
