British Columbia

Last August, Vancouver medical health officer Dr. John Blatherwick submitted a report to city council on “The Health Risks of Environmental Contaminants.” The main points he made were:

® Government decisions “being made in the current climate of public opinion” are requiring “enormous public and pri- vate expense which may not achieve commensurate improvements in the environment or the health status of the public,” and in some cases may be “out of proportion to the health risks of the environmental contaminants.”

@ A “perception” of health risks is being established that may be unwar- ranted.

@ The risks associated with some “high profile” contaminants have not been established. Specifically, there is not conclusive evidence of significant risk to humans from PCBs and their contami- nant dioxins, resulting in the “extremely stringent standards that have been estab- lished for permissible levels of these chemicals.”

e “Evidence for long term human health effects or environmental effects is unproven and unlikely.”

Dr Blatherwick’s views certainly do fly in the face of public perception. But is that perception necessarily wrong? For every lab or medical report that Dr. Bla- therwick produces to back up his views, 10 can be produced from doctors-and scientists affirming just the opposite.

I am also mindful of the fact that it took decades before the medical profes- sion or workers compensation boards admitted that smoking causes cancer or that mine dust can cause silicosis. Even today, the owners of pulp mills and other industries which pollute our waters refuse to admit the dangerous effects to human health of the contaminants they pour into our oceans, lakes and rivers.

The question arises: Why would Dr. Blatherwick, on his own initiative, bring

benefit if his ideas are accepted?

in sucha report at this time? Who would .

Report would let toxin violators off the hook

The first one to benefit would be the provincial government because:

@ The report provides an excuse for it not to move PCBs stored in our schools and elsewhere in the city and province, if, as Blatherwick claims, they are of no significant risk to humans.

© It agreed to clean up the contami- nants on the Expo 86 lands at public expense before it gave them away for a song to a Hong Kong billionaire, and would now have to spend less money on this clean-up ($20 million instead of $200 million), if these contaminants are also of no significant risk to human beings.

Other developers sitting on contami- nated lands would benefit because they

would now be cleared of any responsibil- ity for removing contaminated soil.

I am not an expert on the environ- ment, or PCBs and dioxins. But neither are Dr. Blatherwick or assistant city manager Ken Dobell, who endorsed this report.

The danger of PCBs and other dioxins isn’t only or even primarily that of skin contact. The main danger is that they get into our food chain with a multiplying effect and we ingest them.

These are some of the reasons why I am not endorsing this report. The whole issue requires a lot more study. Despite Dr. Blatherwick’s fears about public per- ceptions that may be wrong, I think pub- lic perceptions must be given every consideration because it is the public that in the long run will suffer from these contaminants.

It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Edmonton city council gained a new progressive voice with the election of Brian Mason, aldermanic candidate for Ward 3, on Oct. 16. Mason, who had lost his job as a bus driver due to a provincial law which forbids civic employees from running for office, was elected with a total of 8,922 votes, second over-all and more than 4,000 votes ahead of the third place candidate.

Mason, running under the Edmonton Voter’s Association (EVA) slate, accre- dited his victory to a well-organized campaign and the hard work of a broad coalition of progressive and community activists.

“Tt was really well organized. A lot of people worked on the campaign,” Mason told the Tribune. “I think there were three main factors to my election. One, I was fairly well known through my position as president of EVA and was involved in a number of campaigns fight- ing for the interests of working people.

“The fight over my right to run also

helped and a lot of people supported that. Secondly, there was a lot of support

Progressive wins spot on Edmonton council

from the trade union movement, the New Democrats and people like Ross Harvey (the sole federal NDP MP from Alberta) and Ray Martin (provincial leader of the NDP).

“Thirdly, there was the platform of EVA which is a fairly comprehensive and well thought-out program tailored in the interests of working people.”

Mason said his priorities include res- toring municipal services to a reasonable level following eight years of cuts, and making the tax burden fairer.

Other priorities will be developing an economic strategy for the city to provide good, long-term jobs and formulating a comprehensive environmental policy for Edmonton.

During the election campaign, Mason was forced to-resign his job as a bus driver because of provincial legislation which forbids municipal employees — the transit system is administered by the city — from running for civic office. He challenged the legislation in court but the judge skirted the issue on.a technicality, arguing that Mason had already made his own decision by resigning his job.

2 « Pacific Tribune, October 30, 1989

Mayor, aldermen

back n-arms appeal

Kosuke Yokoyama, leader of the Japanese Peace Wave delegation, shovels earth

over the roots of a newly planted tree in Vancouver's Seaforth Park on Oct. 21. That ceremony was followed by one in which fire ignited from embers of the eternal flame burning in Hiroshima was added to the peace flame located in the park. Ald. Libby Davies read the mayor's proclamation declaring Oct. 23-30 United Nations Disar- mament Week, while Dr. Kirsten Emmott, vice-chair of the B.C. chapter of Canadian Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, presided.

Vancouver mayor Gordon Campbell and all nine city councillors present added their names to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki appeal for the elimination of nuclear wea- pons Oct. 24 following an address from Hiroshima survivor Fusako Mamii.

Mamii, a member of the executive board of.the Tokyo Federation of A-Bomb Suf- ferers Organizations, was in Vancouver as part of a delegation from the Japan Council against A and H-Bombs, organizers of the world “Peace Wave” movement. Initially launched four years ago by U.S. and Soviet delegates to the council’s conference in Hiroshima on the 40th anniversary of the bombing, the peace wave is aimed at gener- ating peace activity during UN Disarma- ment Week and obtaining signatures of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki appeal.

“T am here to ask you to sign the ‘Hiro- shima and Nagasaki appeal, to join with

peoples all over the world who today will be

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increased reader involvement this fall. Help make the Tribune the forum for debate.

taking part in a huge peace wave action, which has already gathered 50 million sig- natures to the appeal,’ Mamii told city council.

“Asa direct survivor of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945,” she said, “I am one of a group of unique individuals in the history of humanity who has expe- rienced such a holocaust.

“May our common efforts succeed so that no other member of the human race will ever have to undergo such a living hell,” she said.

The 1985 Hiroshima and Nagasaki appeal calls for “the complete prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons” and urges people around the world “to work together urgently to achieve a total ban on the use, testing, research, development, production, deployment and stockpiling of nuclear weapons.”