BRITISH COLUMBIA

i Calculations that the Advanc-
| €d Light Rapid Transit (ALRT)

| | System imposed by the Social

' Credit government on the Greater

| | Vancouver region will cost three
| times as much as a conventional

| line may swell the initial protest
| against the unproven technology.
Vancouver alderman Bruce

| | Yorke said Tuesday that he and

| Colleague Harry Rankin, who sit
| M the Greater Vancouver Re-
| 80nal District’s transit commit-

| | tee, will call for the line to be

} ‘tapped if the figures tabled by

| | SOMmmittee chairman Bob Bose

_ turn out to be well-founded.

| | . And the Independent Cana-

? dian Transit Union, which repre-
| Sents transit operators in the
| SVRDand Victoria, has planned
an all-candidates meeting on the
issue, tentatively scheduled for
Nov, 14,
__ That will mean the battle will
joron between proponents of the

provincial governments favored
ALRT, and those who have con-
sistently argued that a conven-
tional light-rail system, as used
in cities all over the world, is the
best route for the region to go.

“We opposed ALRT all
along,’’ said Yorke of himself
and Rankin, the two aldermen
from the Committee of Progress-
ive Electors. The civic party was
for years active in the demand for
a rapid transit system in the re-
gion, he said.

If Bose’s figures ‘‘stand up,”
the Vancouver aldermen would
urge the GVRD to press the pro-
vincial government and its cor-
porate arm, B.C. Transit, to re-
consider the ALRT project, ‘‘and
we'd certainly utilize the (civic)
election apparatus to force a de-
bate on the issue,”’ Yorke said.

Bose, a Surrey alderman, re-
leased figures at a recent commit-
tee meeting which pegged the fi-

nalcost of ALRT at $1 billion, far
exceeding B.C. Transit’s estimat-
ed $718 million price tag (1986
dollars). That works out to $16a
ride, Bose said, for a deficit of $99
million in the first year of opera-
tion, in addition to an anticipated
$180 million deficit for the rest of
the system.

Transit project chairman and
Socred MLA Jack Davis was not
able to refute Bose’s $1 billion
cost estimate, although he main-
tained the cost per ride would be
about $4 — based on an optimis-
tic 30 million rides per year pro-
jection.

Bose told the Tribune Tuesday
he commissioned a private study
into the costs of the system and
has received figures on the cost of
conventional lines in four cities.
Heis still waiting for figures from
Toronto, where a four-kilometre
ALRT line is under construction
in the suburb of Scarborough.

Cost studies spark new debate over ALRT

According to Yorke, Bose has

‘promised transit committee

members that they will have a re-
port ‘‘in their hands’ 10 days
prior to the meeting, set for Nov.
4.

Bose said he commissioned the
private study, which comes two
years after the municipal affairs
minister Bill Vander Zalm impos-
ed the ALRT system on to the
GVRD, when ‘‘the provincial
government announced they’ll
send us the bill.”’

Recent pronouncements at the
last GVRD meeting, and at the
Union of B.C. Municipalities
convention last month made it
clear that the current cost-sharing
formula would apply to ALRT as
well, Yorke said. ‘‘Before that,
the implications were that be-
cause of the changed order of
magnitude, there would be spe-
cial funding for it.”’

Under the current five-year

agreement, the provincial govern-
ment pays 45.5 percent of the
total transit budget, and next
year, the final year, they’ll pay
only 43.4 percent, said Yorke, an
economist.

And that will include amortiza-
tion charges on the $600 million
loan incurred by the ALRT pro-
ject — something the government
prefers to ignore in its cost esti-
mates, Yorke said.

The new line will also likely
mean increases in the gasoline and
Hydro surcharges used to finance
the transit system, and increased
Sone taxes, critics have charg-

The transit union has tentative-
ly scheduled a public forum on
ALRT, and has invited all civic
election candidates along with
project chairman Davis. It is slat-
ed for the Grandview ‘Legion,
Commercial Drive at 6th Avenue,
on Nov. 4.

Controversy over VDT tests
highlights standards issue

___ By SEAN GRIFFIN
A last minute agreement bet-

| Ween Surrey Memorial Hospital

‘ ae the Hospital Employees Union
; Paved the way Monday for an On-
) “ario radiation expert to begin

) €sting of 16 hospital video display

@ ‘erminals (VDTs) which have been

Mmplicated in several abnormal

¢ Pregnancies among operators.

Dr. Hari Sharma, a nuclear
Chemist and a consultant on radia-

f “On hazards at the University of

Waterloo, and his wife, technician
Mstine Sharma, immediately
an work Monday morning,
Ing the VDT units for possible

. ation emissions and emissions
toxic chemicals:

@ independent tests were

SOught by the HEU after six of

, ‘ven pregnant operators had ab-

normal pregnancies. Three had
bake Tiages, one had a premature
Y and two babies had congeni-
Problems.
pauncy were the latest in a series of
“atistical ‘“‘clusters”? of abnormal
Cies experienced by various
Soups of VDT operators. Two
“ars ago, four women working on
© terminals in the classified
boutment at the Toronto Star
Te children with birth defects.
Ore recently, every pregnant
3 Operator in one federal
: vétmment department had an ab-
Srmal pregnancy.
tion’ Possible emission of radia-
On, either ionizing (like X-rays) or

_,°N-ionizing (including visible

a t, microwave and radio fre-
D €ncy) has been considered in ex-
ig the health effects.
it Most studies, including a 10
me federal study, released last
: elk dismissed that possibili-
test se emissions in most units
a have been well below the pre-
t allowable limits.

of past» the provincial ministry
vice bor’s radiation protection ser-
Me wsted the VDTs at Surrey

: Heer oal and declared them

But neither the union nor Dr.
ama has been given a copy of
Wag Teport to see just what testing
ene at the hospital. And since
is 'Y Of the guidelines which apply

VDT emissions are either out-

dated or arbitrary, the union
wanted an independent test con-
ducted.

In a lengthy interview with the
Tribune Sunday, Dr. Sharma em-
phasized that although he was
hired by the HEU to conduct the
study, he had “no preconceived
ideas or biases.’’ But like the unions
and the women involved, heis con-
cerned about the possible health ef-

fects and hopes ‘‘to find some clue —

in the not too distant future.”

Significantly, Dr. Sharma first
began testing VDTs for radiation
emissions a year ago on the request
of a company which had an
operator who had become preg-
nant. and was concerned for ‘the
health of her unborn child.

Since that time he has been in-
volved in the VDT testing and has
recently conducted tests of the ter-
minals in the Ontario legislature
and at the Brantford Expositor.
Two VDT manufacturers havealso
submitted their units for tests
which he is currently conducting.

Unlike much of the testing of
VDTs which hastended to focus on
ionizing radiation, Dr. and
Christine Sharma will be testing for
emission of ionizing radiation as
well as non-ionizing radiation
through the spectrum including
electomagnetic radiation in the
lower frequency ranges, hitherto
considered unimportant. —

They will also be checking for
the presence of polychlorinated
biphenyls, or PCBs, following the
results of Norwegian research,
published last month, which found
high concentrations of the toxic
chemical in rooms housing VDTs.
The PCBs are used as electrical in-
sulation in some VDT units.

Their tests will undoubtedly be
the most exhaustive carried out to
date on any unit — partly because
of special equipment designed for
them by a colleague of Dr.
Sharma’s at Waterloo, electronics
engineer Paul Guy.

‘A U.S. corporation does pro-
duce a radiation hazard meter —
dubbed ‘“‘raham” for short —
which can detect emission of radia-
tion over a wide range of frequen-
cies. But it is limited at the lower
range and Dr. Sharma had Guy de-

sign a special probe capable of de

tecting emissions accurately in the ©

lower range.

“Tt was this new meter which —

gave me the first indication that
there were emissions, in this
range,”’ Dr. Sharma said, referring
to test carried out on other VDTs.
The emissions were later traced toa
“flyback transformer,”’ one of the
components in the units.

Although radiation in the fre-

quency range below 10 megahertz
has usually been considered unim-
portant since it is emitted by many
household devices, there have been
recent suggestions of health effects
due to long term exposure.

Dr. Sharma emphasized that |

there was no evidence as yet but
noted, ‘‘We do know that elec-
tromagnetic radiation cause
chemical changes. And since the
body is essentially chemical, we
can’t rule out the possibility of
health effects.”’

However, electromagnetic |

radiation emissions can be
eliminated simply by installing steel
shielding in the units which would
absorb the radiation, converting it
to heat.

But the sudden new alarm over
the possible effects of VDTs, some
250,000 of which are in use across
Canada today, has also highlighted
the inadequacy of current stan-
dards covering emissions and ex-
posure limits.

For example, the current stan-
dard for exposure to elec-
tromagnetic radiation in the radio
frequency range, as outlined in a
1981 publication on VDTs put out
by the provincial labor ministry,
was set in 1970. It limits ex posure
to one milliwatt per square centi-
metre.

But just how arbitary that stan-
dard is can be seen in the disparity
between the Canadian standard,
that in the U.S. and that in the

Soviet. Union. The figures were
published by the federal govern-
ments Canadian Centre for Oc-
cupational Health and Safety.
Setting a cautious, conservative
standard, the Soviet Union limits
exposures to .01 milliwatts per
square centimetre. The U.S., on
the other hand, allows exposures

University of Waterloo nuclear chemist Dr. Hari Sharma (r) and
technician Christine Sharma demonstrate some of their equipment

Sunday prior to VDT testing.

up to 1,000 times that amount, or
10 milliwatts per square centimetre.

Yet recent U.S. research,
reported by the American Con-
ference of Governmental and In-
dustrial Hygienists last year, sug-
gests that at certain radio frequen-
cies, the exposure limit should be
much less than at others. In fact, its
study stated, ‘‘all radio frequency
exposures should be kept as low as
reasonably possible, given the cur-
rent state of knowledge of human
effects.”

“T think that says it all,’’ Dr.
Sharma noted. ‘‘Obviously there
has to be more research done.and
new standards set on the basis of

’ that research.”’

’ But until those standards are set
— and even if the Sharmas’ tests
finds no emissions — there is still
the disturbing question on the ab-
normal pregnancies and the
possibility that there may be more

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— OCTOBER 22, 1982—Page 3

before some answers are found.
Virtually all of the unions in-
volved — including the Newspaper
Guild, the Public Service Alliance
of Canada, Telecommunications
Workers and now, the HEU —
have urged that employers and

government err on the side of cau-.

tion and allow VDT operators who
become pregnant to transfer to
other work during the term of
pregnancies.

At the beginning of this month,
Comox NDP MLA Karen Sand-
ford introduced a private
member’s bill into the legislature
which sets out comprehensive safe-
ty standards governing the use of
VDTs.

Among the provisions of the bill,
called An Act for the Protection of
Video Display Terminal Operat-
ors, is one allowing pregnant oper-
ators to be transferred away from
VDT work without loss of pay or
benefits.

TRIBUNE PHOTO— SEAN GRIFFIN