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Smell sickens Peace area residents
News Articles | Hanneke Broomyans | Edmonton Journal | July 07, 2010
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Chemicals 40 times higher than normal inside homes, study says
ST. ISIDORE — Tests show that chemicals causing odour problems in an area east of Peace River were up to 40 times higher than normal background levels, Alberta government officials told area residents Tuesday.
The Alberta government sent about 15 representatives to a small community hall near Peace River Tuesday to talk about the smells that some residents complain have become unbearable.
About 60 people listened to a summary of the test results and what’s been done about odours so nauseating they’ve jolted people awake in the middle of the night and made them sick.
Many of the residents pressed the government to legitimize their health concerns, while others expressed frustration that no solutions had been found.
The chemicals in question are volatile organic compounds. That group includes a wide variety of chemicals, including hydrocarbons, such as ethane and pentane from the energy industry.
The meeting took place in St. Isidore, close to the Three Creeks area east of Peace River where the odours have been the worst.
Doug Dallyn told the panel how the odours have made him sick enough to disrupt his life. He said the government has told the public the past few months that although there are odour issues, they shouldn’t affect health.
Dallyn and others described digestive problems, blinding headaches and burning lungs and throats.
“It really frustrates us when we have people running around saying, ‘It’s not a health risk, it’s not a health risk,’ “ Dallyn said.
Dr. Albert de Villiers, of Alberta Health Services, told the crowd that while they have no information that says the chemical levels would cause something like cancer, they agree there is an issue.
“We all agree, yes, there are health effects.”
Dr. Stephan Gabos, also of Alberta Health Services, said blood tests would not reveal how much of the chemicals people were being exposed to since volatile organic compounds do not remain in the blood. However, he agreed with several people in the audience who suggested the province do a health survey on people in the area.
Health officials also encouraged anyone who has symptoms they feel are associated with air pollutants in the area to report to a doctor, who would then pass those results on to the health authority.
Dan Mody urged the government to speed up its work on the issue. It’s a problem that has to be dealt with immediately because people are living with it now, he said.
“When they wake up with a problem tomorrow morning, what are they supposed to do, hold this in front of their nose?” he asked holding the government report to his nose.
Employees from the Energy Resources Conservation Board and Alberta Environment talked about the monitoring and inspections they’ve done in the past few months trying to find the problem. This spring, the ERCB did 163 inspections in the area. Of those, 22 per cent had low-risk non-compliance issues.
Despite the extensive testing, Candace MacDonald, the ERCB team leader for the Grande Prairie field centre, said she was not able to determine where the odours are coming from. She said all operators have similar emission sources.
Greg Smith, Alberta Environment’s district compliance manager for Grande Prairie, said after the meeting that the situation in the area is a clear case of cumulative effects from industry.
MacDonald said progress was being made.
“One year ago, 56 per cent of total produced gas in this area was being vented,” she said. “Currently, two per cent is being vented.”
She added that different scrubber systems are being tested in the field. They should know in the next two to four weeks whether or not those efforts have been effective.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Smell+sickens+residents+near+Peace+River/3243540/story.html#ixzz0t7d3Giop
Tagged with: alberta, public health, peace river, toxics
