{"id":60320,"date":"2015-08-31T11:09:04","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T03:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=60320"},"modified":"2025-03-05T23:32:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T04:32:42","slug":"toxic-taint-tests-in-alberta-industrial-heartland-reveal-air-quality-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/08\/31\/toxic-taint-tests-in-alberta-industrial-heartland-reveal-air-quality-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Toxic taint: Tests in Alberta industrial heartland reveal air quality concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alberta\u2019s<\/a>
Alberta\u2019s Industrial Heartland, one of Canada\u2019s largest petrochemical processing regions
(Photo from Industrialheartland.com<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EDMONTON \u2013 New air-quality tests in one of Canada\u2019s largest petrochemical processing regions have revealed more evidence of short-lived but concentrated plumes of toxic chemicals.<\/p>\n

The tests by a Nobel-prize-winning lab at University of California Irvine echo previous results scientists have recorded for known carcinogens in the area northeast of Edmonton.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a snapshot, but it\u2019s no fluke,\u201d said Donald Blake, who heads the lab.<\/p>\n

Researchers visited what\u2019s called Alberta\u2019s Industrial Heartland \u2013 home to more than 40 petrochemical companies \u2013 in July 2012. They collected 96 samples of air nearby and in upwind rural areas.<\/p>\n

The results vary widely, although the majority are well under Alberta\u2019s limits. But for July 8-12 of that year researchers found three days that had brief, dramatic spikes in levels of benzene, a known carcinogen for which there is no safe level.<\/p>\n

One sample reached 11 parts per billion, one was 24 ppb and a third was 156 ppb.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the kinds of numbers we don\u2019t see in Los Angeles,\u201d said Blake.<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s recommended level is nine ppb averaged over an hour. The monitor of air quality in the region reports benzene exceeded that level only once during all of 2012.<\/p>\n

Blake suggested the short-term spikes may have been lost when averaged over an hour.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is something that is blowing at somebody\u2019s house, and they\u2019re getting five to 20 parts per billion of benzene at them all the time… that starts to worry me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the third time his lab has come to the Industrial Heartland.<\/p>\n

Visits in 2008 and 2010 resulted in a peer-reviewed and published study in 2013 that found smog-causing chemicals at levels comparable to \u2013 and occasionally many times higher than \u2013 some of the world\u2019s largest cities and industrial complexes. At least 10 of the chemicals found in the plumes were either known or suspected carcinogens.<\/p>\n

Researchers also found blood cancers in men in the three counties surrounding the heartland to be consistently higher over the years 1997-2006 than for neighbouring counties. No link was proven.<\/p>\n

The 2012 results have not been published.<\/p>\n

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They were released to The Canadian Press upon the news agency\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

Warren Kindzierski, a professor in the University of Alberta\u2019s public Health department, called the results interesting, but said more data is needed to confirm whether transient puffs of tainted air are slipping by monitors. There’s a good statistical chance the high results could be an error, he suggested.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got some good data here. I think the evidence is not all there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monitoring plumes is tricky, said Kindzierski, who\u2019s been working with the Fort McKay First Nation near the oilsands to set up a program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been doing it for three or four years and it is not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Alberta Environment said air-quality guidelines followed by the Heartland\u2019s monitor are set by a group including the government, environmentalists and industry.<\/p>\n

The spokeswoman, who was provided with the data from the California lab, declined to comment on its findings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be difficult to provide a comment to this latest data that has not yet been made publicly available or provided to us directly by (the university).\u201d<\/p>\n

Premier Rachel Notley didn\u2019t hold back when she commented as the NDP environment critic on the same lab\u2019s 2013 paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cA better response would be to take it very, very seriously and immediately commit to doing a review of the comprehensiveness and efficacy of the air-quality testing that’s going on,\u201d she said at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2013 New air-quality tests in one of Canada\u2019s largest petrochemical processing regions have revealed more evidence of short-lived but …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":60321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,16],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-60320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","category-news","tag-original","mauthors-bob-weber","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287314,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60320\/revisions\/287314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}