Editor:
In the eyes of the global scientific community, the Ajax debate is over.
The proposed mine would be too big, too close and too polluting.
It would be the largest open-pit mining operation this close to a major city anywhere in the world.
The environmental assessment of the Ajax proposal has not included a health-impact assessment and, without one, the people of Kamloops become victims of unfettered capitalism.
Lung disease is the defining health-care issue of our time.
The numbers of people living with, and dying from, respiratory illnesses are rising sharply, even as mortality rates of other chronic diseases stabilize and fall.
One in five Canadians — a number equal to the combined populations of Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia — suffer from lung disease.
Chronic obstructive lung disease is the No. 1 cause of hospitalization in Canada.
Eighteen per cent of these patients are then re-admitted on an annual basis.
Lung cancer kills more people than breast, ovarian, colon, prostate cancers combined.
One in every five children has asthma.
The World Health Organization released data that shows one in every eight deaths on Earth occurs due to air pollution.
Seven-million people worldwide suffer premature deaths and air pollution is now the world’s largest environmental risk.
One in five in your family suffers from lung disease.
Dr. John Granton, national chairman of the Lung Research Campaign and chairman of the Ontario Lung Association, said the heavy human and economic toll exacted by respiratory illness threatens to overwhelm our health-care system.
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, particulate matter 2.5 to 10 in our air is the worst in parts of Quebec and Ontario and in the British Columbia Interior.
Kamloops receives an F grade due to the pollution trapped in its valleys.
The toll of air pollution in Canada — occurring on an annual basis, with Kamloops suffering a disproportionately high share — includes:
• 21,000 premature deaths;
• 620,000 doctor visits;
• 92,000 emergency-room visits;
• 11,000 hospital admissions;
• $8 billion in economic costs.
Dr. Brian Moench of Utah, a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, noted more than 2,000 studies in the last 10 years have significantly broadened our understanding of the public-health consequences of air pollution.
The normal development of the human embryo and the integrity of our DNA are threatened by levels of air pollution that will only be worsened by a mine such as Ajax.
This is due to the particulate pollution with absorbed heavy metals that emanates from the open-pit mining process.
Dr. Michael Brauer, professor at the School of Population and Public health at UBC, described the harm of exercise in a polluted valley and the statistics foretell Kamloops will be an unlikely place to continue its promotion as the Tournament Capital of Canada.
As stated by Interior Health Authority public health officer Dr. Peter Baras, “The proposed Ajax mine is ill-conceived and poorly situated and would represent, if enacted, a serious public-whealth hazard for the people of Kamloops.”
The World Scientific Community dictates we must have a comprehensive federal/provincial assessment, including a health-impact assessment, as was done last year in Marathon, Ont.
That assessment was done in a community smaller than Kamloops for a smaller proposed mine located much farther away, following which the proponent withdrew its application.
In that review, Health Canada played an important role as a panel member.
In addition, a similar comprehensive assessment of environmental health (panel review) was undertaken with the proposed Taseko/Prosperity Mine near Williams Lake — and the mine application was rejected.
Moms for Clean Air, the Kamloops Area Preservation Association, all Kamloops doctors and those Kamloops residents who remain knowledgeable and informed demand the same assessment.
In legal terms, this is called fairness and due process.
Dr. Dennis Karpiak
internal medicine and respiratory-
diseases specialist
Kamloops
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