Belledune Update
Published by MAC on 2006-06-16
Belledune Update
16th June 2006
Cancer study won't ignore lead smelter
Last updated Jun 16 2006 09:36 AM ADT
CBC News
Heavy-metal contamination can't be ruled out as the cause of high cancer rates in the Belledune area, New Brunswick officials admitted Thursday.(FROM JUNE 15, 2006: Province warned about Belledune health hazard, documents show) Responding to a report that suggests provincial officials covered up concerns about Noranda's lead smelter in Belledune, provincial officials said on Thursday they won't discount the possible health effects of contamination in the northeastern New Brunswick town.
Provincial epidemiologist Christopher Balram said an upcoming study of high cancer rates would consider the possible role of the lead smelter.
In preparing its report, the Conservation Council went through thousands of pages of internal government memos and reports dating back to the 1970s. Those documents reveal that an environmental impact assessment of the smelter was criticized as misleading, and overly optimistic. Another report highlighting contamination in Belledune was toned down before it was released to the public. On Thursday, Environment Minister Trevor Holder acknowledged those reports were flawed, and insists that the same mistakes woulnd't be made again. "That process is clearly not today what it was in 1980," he said. "It's a lot better than what it was." Two weeks ago, Balram ruled out lead contamination as the cause of high cancer rates in Belledune, and said an upcoming health study would look at other possible causes including family history, nutrition, and smoking habits.
(FROM JUNE 2, 2006: Study rules out smelter as cause of cancer) On Thursday, Balram said the smelter factor would be taken into consideration. Government officials have said repeatedly there's no proof lead contamination led to cancer in Belledune. Balram now says it probably can't be ruled out, either.
Report hints at decades-old Belledune coverup - Health minister pledges he'll study report's allegations
NB Telegraph-Journal | Provincial News
By Carl Davies - Telegraph-Journal
As published on page A1/A2 on 16th June 2006
An incendiary report released Thursday charges that government ignored warnings dating back 40 years indicating pollution in the Belledune region was making people sick.
The report, titled "Dying for Development: The legacy of lead in Belledune", carefully documents a series of both federal and provincial government reports that stated pollution - mainly from the Noranda smelter - has affected people's health. The report, penned by Inka Milewski of the Conservation Council, details reports and their recommendations and conclusions that were ignored, altered, or kept from the public eye over the years.
Ms. Milewski said Belledune is "the poster child for everything that is wrong with how provincial and federal governments protect people in their environment. "There has been a gross miscarriage of justice in Belledune, and there is a need for restitution."
A government health study released last year indicated higher rates of mortality and certain cancers in the Belledune region, and a follow-up study by the provincial government indicated the current levels of lead in vegetables, fish and milk produced locally pose no risk to people's health.
Another provincial study is about to be launched in partnership with Memorial University to determine what caused the high rates of disease in the area. "None of the reports that have been done to date have answered that question," said Health Minister Brad Green. Mr. Green pledged to look back at some of the allegations in the Conservation Council report, which he took no issue with Thursday. But the minister said he was "much more focused" on the present and the study determining what's at the root of health problems in the Belledune region.
Ms. Milewski believes the root of the problem is the smelter. "It really isn't difficult to connect the dots," Ms. Milewski said. She pointed to data stretching back more than 30 years that showed among other things "astonishing" lead levels in and around the Belledune School as high as 40 times the currently accepted safety levels. "Those are exactly the people who are having these health problems," she said. "Can you imagine what the blood levels might have been in those children?" Ms. Milewski said action could have been taken long ago to stem the problem. "The province knew that there were health risks," she said. "They did nothing. They did nothing to intervene and protect the citizens. "They just allowed those people to go on with their lives not knowing they were risking the health of their children."
The paper trail unearthed by Ms. Milewski dates back to 1968, when federal scientists found high levels of lead in the community and recommended an investigation. The report was not made public and no action was taken. In 1973, lead poisoning was suspected in the deaths of sheep in the area, yet Ms. Milewski says little was done to determine why. By 1981, the federal health department alerted the province that lead posed a risk to people in the area and immediate measures were needed to reduce contamination.
Local residents were not informed they were at risk, according to Ms. Milewski's report. That same year, a study was started on lead levels in food and water in the region. Five years later a draft report was produced, and while the report concluded there was "no significant" contamination, the report and results were never made public. In 1991, a report from the province's environment department determined Belledune was one of the "most seriously contaminated" areas of the province.
Amid concerns Noranda would sue the province, the report was altered and the conclusions changed. Ms. Milewski said the paper trail pointed to a "public health scandal" that "must never be allowed to happen again." She said the coverup reached the highest levels of government.
"Assistant deputy ministers, deputy ministers knew "... absolutely. If the deputy minister knew, then I'm sure the minister knew." Ms. Milewski said the latest report from the province indicates several properties in the vicinity of the smelter still have contaminated soil and she called for an immediate cleanup. "We're going to take some time to review this report," Environment Minister Trevor Holder said. "If there are any properties that need remediation, we will work with those property owners."
Mr. Holder said his officials are testing in the area right now and promised results "relatively soon "... not months, not years. "This government is clearly taking this issue much more seriously than other administrations have." Neither Mr. Green nor provincial epidemiologist Cristofer Balram would rule out the possibility that pollution from the past has contributed to health problems being experienced today. "You cannot say that you can rule out everything. It's impossible," Mr. Balram said.
Opposition MLAs were measured in their response to the report. "We have to address these issues now that we know these issues are there," said Liberal health critic Victor Boudreau. "Regardless of what happened in the past, we have to look to the future and address it." Environment critic Stuart Jamieson, who was a member of cabinet in Frank McKenna's Liberal government, said, "I'm not going to make any excuses for the former government I was a member of. "There's a lot of
former governments involved in this issue. I think it's time we moved on and got things cleaned up." Ms. Milewski said what happens now is key. "I think the province has been given a really good opportunity to do the right thing."
Daily Gleaner | Provincial News
As published on page A4 on June 16, 2006
Council alleges N.B. covered up environmental hazard
By RICHARD DUPLAIN
rduplain@dailygleaner.com
MILEWSKI
A report by the New Brunswick Conservation Council alleges a government coverup surrounding pollution in Belledune and a refusal to consider scientific facts.
Council policy director David Coon said the premier should order a public enquiry, compensate those affected and order an immediate cleanup of the area.
The full report can be seen at www.conservationcouncil.ca.
"Since we first uncovered the problem in 2003 and brought it to public attention in an effort to secure a clean up, the pattern has remained the same," Coon said.
"Despite the extent of contamination in people's yards, in their garden produce and in local seafood, despite the fact that a number of adults and children have unacceptable levels of lead, cadmium or arsenic, and despite the damning results of the government's own health study, there is still no cleanup and the problem continues to be dismissed," he said.
"It's a public health scandal."
On Thursday, the Conservation Council released a report called Dying for Development, The Legacy of Lead in Belledune.
The report was written by Inka Milewski.
She concludes government officials knew in 1968 the lead smelter complex in Belledune that opened in 1966 was an environmental hazard.
Milewski's three-year study concludes inaction by successive provincial and federal governments set a pattern that government officials follow to this day.
The report exposes what the council considers a 40-year trail of government neglect and deceit about the poisoning of Belledune by lead, cadmium and arsenic.
The council based its report on documents obtained under the federal and provincial right-to-information legislation.
The council said lead is known to affect the IQ and behaviour of children and cause blood, heart and nervous disorders in children and adults. Chronic exposure to cadmium and arsenic can result in a variety of cancers and diseases.
The council also conducted a children's health survey in the Belledune area.
Of the 76 children from 50 families who participated, 26 children living closest to the smelter had more health problems associated with their nervous system, skin, bladder and digestion than the 50 children living six to eight kilometres from the smelter.
Dying for Development said cadmium is known to affect the kidneys, liver and stomach, while lead causes nervous system, stomach and kidney disorders, and arsenic causes skin, respiratory, stomach and nervous system disorders in children.
"What has happened in Belledune is scandalous," Milewski said.
"Despite the fact that the provincial government had clear evidence and expert advice that the lead contamination posed a health risk to the people of Belledune, they kept those families in the dark for an entire generation."
Belledune - Timeline
What follows are some key points in the Dying for Development report by the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.
# In May 1968, then Department of National Health and Welfare found high levels of lead in and around the school in Belledune. The report was not made public and neither the province nor the federal government investigated the findings.
# In 1980, provincial environment officials were alerted by smelter officials that lead and cadmium levels in shell fish were high.
# In 1981, an inter-governmental Environmental Impact Assessment review committee called the Belledune area highly contaminated and blamed the lead smelter.
# Also in 1981, the federal Health Department alerted the provincial Health Department that lead contamination posed a health risk to the people of Belledune. The Health Department did not inform residents that they were at risk.
# In 1991, an environment department employee acknowledged Belledune was one of the most contaminated areas of the province. The report from the employee was altered and the conclusions changed and the report was dismissed to avoid possible legal action by the smelter's owners.
# In May 2005, the Belledune-area health study found residents there had higher cancer, disease and death rates than the rest of the province. The province banned mussel harvesting and ordered another study.
# In June, soil, produce and seafood tests were released and the Department of Health declared lead and cadmium were not responsible for the high cancer rates in Belledune.
Canadian Press: N.B. government kept residents in dark about lead contamination: council
http://canadaeast.com/cp/national/article2.php?articleID=9949
FREDERICTON (CP) - The New Brunswick government withheld information for decades about lead contamination and related health risks in a northern industrial community, an environmental group alleged in a new report Thursday.
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick claims the province had several warnings about higher than normal levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic linked to a smelter in Belledune, but did nothing to alert residents.
"The public health scandal here is that in 1981, it was clear to both the provincial and federal governments that there was a significant risk to people's health and they never told them," David Coon of the council said following the release of the 93-page document, called Dying for
Development.
"They were kept in the dark."
The council said it obtained government documents that trace a legacy of denial and neglect dating back to the 1960s, two years after the lead smelter complex opened in the small rural community on the Bay of Chaleur.
It found the federal government had discovered high lead levels around the Belledune school in 1968, which was just hundreds of metres away from the smelter.
The council said the documents show the province ignored the federal government's recommendation to investigate the levels.
In 1981, years after sheep living near the facility started dying, the director of Health and Welfare Canada's bureau of health and safety told the province that the smelter posed a health risk to the community.
Again, the province did not inform the residents, the council says.
"The health of those people was sacrificed to concerns that government departments seemed to have had about rocking the boat with the company," Coon said.
The council has asked the province to hold a public inquiry into the matter and compensate people in the area who have been affected by the smelter.
Provincial Environment Minister Trevor Holder said he would review the issue and consider cleaning up properties that have been harmed by contaminants in the soil or water.
"We've made it clear that if we have to sit down with any property owners, we're certainly there to look at trying to come up with some form of remediation for it," he said, adding that officials are looking at one site that has shown some contamination.
Inka Milewski, who wrote the report, said the government only started revealing the extent of the problem in a 2005 provincial health study that found Belledune residents had higher death, disease and cancer rates compared to other parts of the province.
The study showed that lead levels in the bodies of pregnant women and children were within the normal range.
Seven pregnant women and 47 children were tested for lead levels, which ranged from 0.3 to 3.7 micrograms per decilitre.
According to Health Canada guidelines, blood-lead levels below 10 micrograms per decilitre aren't a medical concern.
The study showed that residents are at a greater risk of contracting certain cancers, but the health minister maintained the cancer and mortality rates are not linked to the region's heavy industrial activity.
The province also found in a study earlier this year that soil samples in the area contained levels of lead and cadmium that were higher than federal guidelines.
Canadian Press: Clean up properties contaminated by N.B.
smelter - environmental group
http://canadaeast.com/cp/atlantic/article2.php?articleID=9948
FREDERICTON (CP) - An environmental group is calling for a cleanup of properties it says are contaminated with lead in the northern New Brunswick community of Belledune.
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick says it has obtained government studies which detail the community's exposure to lead, cadmium and arsenic from a nearby lead smelter.
The group cites a 2005 provincial health study that found Belledune residents had higher death, disease and cancer rates compared to other parts of the province.
The council's study, titled "Dying for Development", also says public servants have been aware for years that the 40-year-old smelter was causing health problems.
Documents obtained by the council say the federal Health Department discovered the high levels of lead in 1968, and in August 1981 the director of the federal bureau of chemical safety advised the New Brunswick government that lead contamination posed a health risk to residents.
It cites federal studies as far back as 1973 where officials document that farm animals living near the facility we're dying off in high numbers.
David Coon, the director of the conservation council, says the documents suggest a "public health scandal."
In December, the province released its own study of the Belledune area showing that lead levels in the bodies of pregnant women and children were within the normal range.
Seven pregnant women and 47 children were tested for lead levels, which ranged from 0.3 to 3.7 micrograms per decilitre.
According to Health Canada guidelines, blood-lead levels below 10 micrograms per decilitre aren't a medical concern.
The study showed that residents are at a greater risk of contracting certain cancers, but the health minister maintained the cancer and mortality rates are not linked to the region's heavy industrial activity.
Province warned about Belledune health hazard, documents show
http://www.cbc.ca/nb/story/nb-belledunehealth20060614.html
Last updated Jun 15 2006 09:30 AM ADT
CBC News
Thousands of documents tracing the secret history of Noranda's Belledune smelter show scientists repeatedly warned the New Brunswick government that heavy metal contamination posed a potential danger to human health.
The smelter in northeastern New Brunswick has generated controversy for decades, amid fears that lead and cadmium contamination was causing more health problems than normal — including higher cancer rates— and lowering property values.
But even though provincial officials continue to insist there is no known link between heavy metal contamination and high cancer rates in the Belledune area, the documents — which span the past 25 years — show that federal and provincial scientists believed the lead and cadmium that is still present in many backyards could pose a health risk.
Environmentalist Inka Milewski, who has been researching the history of the smelter for the New Brunswick Conservation Council, obtained the government documents through access to information legislation.
Milewski said the memos, studies and reports reveal a persistent knowledge on the part of the province that heavy metals created a health risk in the Belledune area.
Noranda found heavy metals in lobster
The documents reveal a history that begins in 1977, when Noranda scientists acknowledged contamination in a research paper they presented at a conference in San Francisco. The scientists found a sudden increase in cadmium levels found in lobster taken near the smelter
In 1980, Noranda requested permission from the government to start smelting zinc at its Belledune operation, after years of smelting lead.
The province ordered an environmental impact assessment of the project, which eventually gave Noranda the green light to smelt zinc — though the company eventually abandoned the plan.
But one year later, a joint committee of federal and provincial scientists reviewed the EIA and criticized it as being full of "deficiencies," both in assessing the potential impact of zinc and the existing contamination.
It said the Belledune area is "highly contaminated" and the EIA does not give the reader an "honest appreciation of the gravity of the situation."
* Read the EIA critique: The joint federal-provincial review of the zinc smelter EIA, which faults the EIA's findings on potential zinc contamination and existing lead and cadmium contamination. The EIA gives the green light to the zinc smelter, which Noranda eventually abandons for
unrelated reasons. http://www.cbc.ca/nb/media/pdf/EIA-critique.pdf
"It's a scathing review of the environmental impact statement," said Milewski. "They basically say that the assessment isn't reflective — doesn't reflect the reality of what is happening in Belledune, that it's already a highly contaminated environment."
Toxicologist finds "no significant contamination"
The provincial government then hired consultant toxicologist D. J. Ecobichon to look at the contamination of food and water in the area.
Ecobichon's study found "no significant contamination," but when his report was passed onto Health Canada and Environment Canada, federal officials pointed out in a letter that "the report does not provide evidence that a health hazard does not exist either."
Milewski said despite that, government officials over the years referred to Ecobichon's report as a "health study" and used it to discount concerns about pollution-related illnesses.
"Health Canada and Environment Canada say, you know 'you can't publish this as it is. It really is not going to stand up to scrutiny. You need to go back and do more sampling.' And the report is never published and never really released. It's always just a draft."
* Read the Ecobichon critique: A federal critique of the so-called "health study" by Dr. D. J. Ecobichon, a study which does not come to any conclusions about peoples' health.
http://www.cbc.ca/nb/media/pdf/ecobichon-critique.pdf
In 1991, the provincial government assigned a provincial bureaucrat named Wilf Pilgrim to assess the air quality in Belledune in light of a new provincial clean-air strategy.
Milewski's package of documents includes Pilgrim's first draft of a report he would eventually send to government.
"Basically he says, yes, the heavy metal contamination is highest two or three kilometres from the smelter, but there are high levels of certain metals beyond two to three kilometres, in some cases as far as nine or ten kilometres," she said.
But the finding of contamination nine kilometres away was never published.
One of his superiors, Paul Monti, wrote a memo critiquing the draft. He said Pilgrim's report appeared biased. While he acknowledged a problem in Belledune, Monti said the draft would not pass scientific review. He also said that publicizing the report as it was could be "messy" and cause "a lot of casualties."
Monti also said Noranda might sue over the report and recommended "judicious editing."
* Read the documents surrounding the Pilgrim report: *A summary from the first draft of a Belledune assessment by Wilfred Pilgrim, provincial DOE. This page contains the reference to contamination nine kilometres away.
*A memo by bureaucrat Paul Monti that suggests there will be "casualties" if the Pilgrim report is released as is and recommends "judicious editing."
*A summary page from the final version in which there is only a vague reference to contamination outside the immediate 2-3 km area around the smelter.
http://www.cbc.ca//nb/media/pdf/edited-study.pdf
Milewski described the result: "Gone from the second draft is all the information from the literature, the scientific literature, on the human health impacts of exposure to lead and other heavy metals, but gone also is this reference to contamination beyond the two to three kilometres. They say, well, at some point there are some exceedances, but there's no distance given."
When the final version was released four years later, there were more changes.
"All the health recommendations are gone, for blood testing, for dust testing, for having the company fund a public awareness program, and a reference is made to a study, the Ecobochin study, that found there is no health risk associated with heavy metal contamination or heavy metal
levels in the Belledune area," Milewski said.
Province failed to protect residents, Milewski says
For Milewski, the critiques from Health Canada, the continued mischaracterization of the so-called "health study" and the "judicious editing" of the Pilgrim report all point to a single conclusion about two successive provincial governments in New Brunswick.
"They had an obligation to protect the residents of Belledune, and they failed to do that. And the legacy of that failed system is two generations of residents who have unnecessarily suffered the effects of exposure to heavy metals."
Conservation Council of New Brunswick News Release
For immediate publication
15th June 2006
Report Reveals New Brunswick Government Covered Up Health Risks of Smelter Contamination for a Generation
Fredericton - The Conservation Council of New Brunswick has released an exposé that traces a 40-year trail of government deceit and neglect concerning the contamination of Belledune, New Brunswick by a lead smelter, now owned by Falconbridge. A 2005 provincial health study
revealed that the community had a high death and cancer rate compared to other parts of the province.
"Dying for Development - The Legacy of Lead in Belledune" uses thousands of documents obtained under federal and provincial right-to-information legislation to document who knew what and when about the extent of contamination in the community and the health risks posed by the lead, cadmium and arsenic in people's yards, vegetables and seafood.
Dying for Development" reveals that public servants were fully aware of the extent and implications of heavy metal contamination in Belledune for the past 25 years. They commissioned or altered studies which were used to downplay or deny the problems. And they deliberately kept the victims of the heavy metal contamination in the dark.
Exposure to lead and other heavy metals is known to affect the IQ and behaviour of children and cause blood, kidney and nervous disorders, along with a number of cancers.
The lead smelter complex in Belledune was opened in 1966 and has had different owners over the years including Noranda and Falconbridge. It was seen by then Premier Louis Robichaud as a way of transforming the impoverished economy of northern New Brunswick by processing the ore from
nearby Brunswick mines in the province, rather than allowing it to simply be shipped away.
By 1968, just two years after the lead smelter began operation, high lead levels were discovered by the federal Department of Health and Welfare in and around the nearby Belledune school. Their recommendation of further investigations into lead pollution in the community was ignored by both
provincial and federal governments. "Dying for Development" documents how this inaction set the pattern that government officials have followed to this day.
"What has happened in Belledune is scandalous," said Inka Milewski, author of the report. "Despite the fact that the provincial government had clear evidence and expert advice that the lead contamination posed a health risk to the people of Belledune, they kept those families in the dark for an entire generation," said Milewski.
According to documents obtained by the Conservation Council, the consequences of heavy metal poisoning in the community first came to government attention in 1973 when sheep began to die on the farm close to the smelter. In August 1981, the Director of Health and Welfare Canada's
Bureau of Chemical Safety advised the New Brunswick Department of Health that the lead contamination of the area posed a health risk to the people of Belledune. The people of Belledune were not informed.
"The documents we obtained reveal a series of decisions, some implicit, some explicit, taken by public servants and their political masters that the people of Belledune should, without their knowledge, live in a contaminated environment since 1981," said Ms. Milewski the report's author.
The report documents how public servants filtered information from field staff reports, commissioned deficient studies, and altered the only public report to be published about heavy metal contamination in Belledune to downplay or deny problems.
"Since we first uncovered the problem in Belledune in 2003 and brought it to public attention in an effort to secure a clean up, the pattern has remained the same," said David Coon, Policy Director for the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. "Despite the extent of contamination in people's
yards, in their garden produce and in local seafood, despite the fact that a number of adults and children have unacceptable levels of lead, cadmium or arsenic, and despite the damning results of the government's own health study there is still no clean up and the problem continues to be
dismissed. It's a public health scandal," said Coon.
In addition to ordering a clean up of contaminated properties the Conservation Council believes government should compensate those whose property or health has been effected, and launch a public inquiry into the scandal.
To prevent future Belledunes, the Conservation Council says an Environmental Bill of Rights is needed to entrench the public right to know about environmental and health risks and to protect civil servants who "blow the whistle" on government inaction that threatens the health and well-being of citizens.
Copies of "Dying for Development" can be ordered from the Conservation Council or downloaded from their website at www.conservationcouncil.ca
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Related Documents:
Dying for Development: the legacy of lead in Belledune
http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/envjus/files/DFD_Report_EN.pdf
Dying for Development - Chronology of a Cover-up
http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/envjus/files/DFD_Chronology_EN.pdf Dying
for Development - Mosaic 1950-2000
http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/archives/2006/envjus_dfd_mosaic.html
For more information, contact:
Inka Milewski, Report author, (506) 458-8747
Inuk Simard, Francophone spokesperson, (506) 458-8747