next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects
Tip: Your message to SUST-MAR must be html-free. So, BEFORE you hit SEND, please go to your "Format" pull-down menu and select "Plain text." Thanks!
____________________________________________________________________________
.
Press Release
Sierra Club of Canada
Return to Sender Coalition
December 7th 2004
Top Scientist Confirms Residents' Concerns of Belledune Risks
(Bay of Chaleurs, December 7th, 2004) The findings of Dr. David Pengelly, an internationally recognized scientist, released today confirm what many residents of Belledune N.B. have long believed, that Bennett Environmental Inc's highly controversial $29 million waste incinerator project appears to pose an unacceptable human health risk.
In preparation for upcoming New Brunswick hearings, which could potentially see the project's building permit revoked, Dr. David Pengelly has reviewed an order made recently by the Quebec Ministry of the Environment regarding Bennett's facility at St. Ambroise, PQ, together with a human health risk assessment for Belledune and related materials.
Based on this review and other apparent calculation anomalies in Bennett's Belledune risk assessment, Pengelly's most recent report concludes "it now appears that if the Belledune facility is allowed to operate, the facility alone will create non-cancer risks that exceed New Brunswick's regulatory limit. When combined with background risks from dioxins and furans, emissions from the facility will also exceed the cancer risk limit established by the Province. Therefore, it appears this facility should not be allowed to operate."
Recent government soil testing in the area of Bennett's RSI facility in St. Ambroise, Quebec has found that in the past two years, levels of dioxins and furans (some of the most toxic substances known) have increased to almost 80 times above background and are suddenly more than 9 times the level recommended by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME).
"While these findings are still under review, they are very disturbing. It's true that wood stoves and other things create these same contaminants, but these devices have been in use for more than a hundred years. So far we have not heard an explanation for these very sharp increases in such a short period of time other than Bennett" Pengelly said.
"Given the importance of these findings, we believe it's critical to get this information to the Federal Minister of Environment and other government officials now" said Florian Levesque of Environnement Vie, a Bay of Chaleurs (Northern New Brunswick) based advocacy organization that voices the concerns of more than 60,000 residents who signed a petition opposing to the project.
"We are pleased that very credible science now clearly supports what many people have believed for some time, that facilities like Bennett's appear to create an unacceptable risk" said Luc Potvin of the Return to Sender Coalition, a Bay of Chaleurs (Gaspe area) organization fighting to stop the Bennett Environmental toxic waste incinerator project.
Dr. David Pengelly holds a PhD. in human Physiology. He specializes in the effects of airborne contaminants on humans. He has a long association both as a professor and with the Institute of Environment and Health at McMaster University in Hamilton and the University of Toronto. For more than 35 years he has worked for governments and private organizations across Canada. In New Brunswick, in 1999 he was retained by the Government of New Brunswick to review the proposed expansion of the Irving Oil Refinery in St. John.
- 30 -
For further information please contact:
Daniel Green, (613)-241-4611, Sierra Club of Canada
Luc Potvin, (418) 802-3270, Return to Sender Coalition
Geneviève St-Hilaire, (418) 534-3003, ext. 267, Return to Sender Coalition
Florian Levesque, (506) 826-2648, Environnement Vie
____________________________________________________________________________
Did a friend forward this to you? Join sust-mar yourself!
Just send 'subscribe sust-mar' to mailto:majordomo@chebucto.ca
next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects