You may not know it, but the air you breathe may be harming you. But don’t panic-the people in charge are finally doing something about it.
“It’s really the public’s right to know. What kind of hazardous substances are we exposed to everyday in our neighbourhood?” asked Nancy Bradshaw, a municipal health worker. Bradshaw spoke Tuesday at U of T on behalf of the Toronto Cancer Prevention Coalition, a group that works closely with city businesses to reduce the level of toxins in the air and water and to educate the public about the risks these chemicals pose.
She said the change required for businesses to reduce their pollution may not come cheap, but businesses will be able to recuperate from implementing greener strategies. Some improvements won’t break the bank at all. Replacing the toxin perchloroethylene in dry cleaners with safer chemicals has proven to be economically sound.
Airborne pollutants like benzene, methylene chloride, and dioxin are a significant source of carcinogens in day-to-day life. Only one to three per cent of industries in Ontario are required to report toxic releases to the public. The province gives businesses permits to pollute, but does not track the pollution they generate.
“We are getting some information, but not enough … what we’re looking for is transparency,” said Bradshaw.
The TCPC is lobbying the city of Toronto to pass a right-to-know bylaw requiring nearly all polluters-not just the largest three per cent of companies-to publish their toxic emissions levels, and to regulate the use of known carcinogens and use alternate chemicals where possible.
The group also recommends that more money be spent on prevention, as currently less than one per cent of anti-cancer funding goes towards reducing tobacco use and occupational exposure to carcinogens. Since over half of new cancer cases are preventable, money spent now on prevention could reduce future healthcare and add up to large savings in the long run.
The federal government is taking some fledging action to prevent cancer. A set of regulations being set in motion by Health Canada’s Radiation Protection Bureau aims to protect Canadians from the threat posed by radon gas in workplaces and homes.
Radon gas forms when uranium in the Earth’s crust decomposes. The gas seeps up through gaps in bedrock and enters buildings through cracks in their foundations. In high concentrations, radon sticks to particles in the air and is easily inhaled, increasing the risk of lung cancer. On average, radon accounts for 52 per cent of one’s exposure to radiation during their lifetime.
Currently, Canada’s public safe-exposure guidelines allow more radon exposure than any other country except Switzerland. Improving the guidelines will decrease the acceptable amount of radon exposure, better protecting the public and falling in line with standards in the rest of the developed world.
Environmental health dangers strike close to home, too. Problems occur in older buildings at U of T, where old sprayed-on asbestos, a dangerous carcinogen used as fireproofing, can come loose and be inhaled.
Since many of the buildings on campus were built before the dangers of asbestos were known, efforts to remove it have been extensive and are continuing. As recently as last August, asbestos in the Mechanical Engineering Building and Sidney Smith was being removed under the university’s asbestos control policy.
In an age where one in three people will have some form of cancer in their lifetime, actions by municipal and federal governments are long overdue. Maybe soon we’ll be able to breathe a little easier.
