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Article Excerpt
Introduction
Environmental contamination events, infamously evidenced in the global catastrophies that occurred at Chernobyl and Bhopal, continue to raise public concerns about health (Slovic 2002). Concomitantly, the public has become increasingly less tolerant of the risks associated with the unintended environmental consequences of technological and industrial development. Indeed, sociologists Ulrich Beck (1992) and Giddens (1991) refer to a 'post-modern' risk society within which the public is no longer willing to tolerate the risks associated with the dark side of progress that are starkly illustrated by environmental pollution and related health problems that result from the operation of heavy industry. This paper applies the concepts inherent in the risk society framework to help understand resident attitudes and responses to industry-driven environmental problems in the Tar Ponds area of Sydney, Nova Scotia, one of the most contaminated industrial sites in Canada. The 100-year legacy of the coal mines, coke ovens and steelmaking operations that kept Sydney's local economy alive for decades now leaves area residents concerned about their health, both present and future, physiological and psychosocial.
In 1999, Health Canada earmarked $63 million to fund site clean-up and health studies in the Tar Ponds. To establish priorities, we submitted proposals to the health studies working group of the Joint Action Group (JAG), a citizen-based advisory group established by the federal and provincial governments. Once submitted, proposals were sent to external experts for scientific review and returned to the JAG for funding decisions. This paper is one part of a larger research project funded in this manner and designed to address community concerns around reproductive health in the Tar Ponds communities. The investigation uses a qualitative case-study approach to explore the perceptions and behaviours related to physiological (reproductive) and psychosocial health among residents living close to the Sydney Tar Ponds, a site that contains over 700,000 tonnes of sediments contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) [Canadian British Consultants Limited (CBCL) and Conestoga Rovers and Associates (CRA) 1999].
This study addresses two objectives. The first objective is to explore the perceived impacts of the Tar Ponds/Coke Ovens sites on the health and daily lives of area residents. Second, the paper investigates the coping mechanisms employed by area residents. The paper begins with a historical/contextual overview of the Tar Ponds issue and the Sydney community, followed by a discussion of the risk society literature that informs the analysis (Giddens 1990, 1991; Beck 1992). The remainder of the paper outlines and examines semi-structured in-depth interviews carried out with Sydney residents in 2001.
The Tar Ponds in Sydney: Overview
Sydney presently forms part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) and is the largest urban municipality on the Island with a population of 26,872 (Table 1). The population has been declining since the 1950s in association with the reduced fortunes of the coal and steel industries. Demographically, Sydney is similar to the CBRM and has a high percentage of persons with English as mother tongue, low education levels, low dwelling values and who are unemployed. However, Sydney has a much lower percentage of owner-occupied dwellings than the CBRM or the Province. Average household income is also lower in Sydney (Table 1).
The Tar Ponds form part of the Muggah Creek Watershed and encompass three major sites of environmental concern. These areas are the Tar Ponds (north and south), the Coke Ovens site and an adjacent municipal landfill/incinerator (receiving unrestricted waste from the early twentieth century) (Figure 1). In addition, because there is not a sewage treatment plant, a substantial amount of untreated raw sewage is currently dumped into the harbour. The Tar Ponds themselves are actually a tidal estuary of 33 hectares that contain over 700,000 tonnes of contaminated sediments including PAHs, hydrocarbon (HC) compounds, coal tar, PCBs, coal dust and municipal sewage (CBCL and CRA 1999). While these levels are the most commonly reported, they are estimates and, for example, Furimsky (2002, 872) states, 'It is frequently reported in the media that the site contains over 700,000 tonnes of toxic sludge, of which an estimated 50,000 tonnes are contaminated with PCBs. it is not clear how this estimate was made.' Furimsky concludes that the reference to 700,000 tonnes of toxic waste may represent only a fraction of the actual amount, an observation that is supported by NGOs such as the Sierra Club (Barlow and May 2000). The coke oven emissions made much more significant contributions to site contamination compared with the blast furnaces (Furimsky 2002). The coke ovens were used to heat coal at extremely high temperatures in the absence of oxygen, producing polluting by-products including coal tar, ammonia, sulphur, light oils, PAHs, HC compounds, sulphur and acids (CBCL and CRA 1999). The degree of contaminated surface water, ground water and soil that extends beyond the site is not well documented but is probably substantial and renders selection of appropriate clean-up methods and determination of overall costs more challenging (Furimsky 2002).
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The industrial history of the area dates back to the mid-1800s when rich coal seams were discovered and significant economic and population growth occurred (CBRM Planning Department 1999). In 1899, Dominion Iron and Steel Co Ltd began operating and soon became the largest manufacturer of its kind in Canada; the population grew from 2,500 in 1899 to 20,000 in 1913 (CBCL and CRA 1999). The region became dependent on coal and steel exports for its economic well-being. For the first half of the twentieth century, the steel industry prospered and employed approximately 5,400 workers at the height of production (Barlow and May 2000). However, in the early 1960s, the global demand for steel dropped drastically, and the Sydney Steel Plant made significant cuts to production and its workforce (CBCL and CRA 1999). Macintyre (1973) indicated that the closure of the steel mills in the late 1960s would displace 6,000 workers, force 3,000 families to apply for welfare and stimulate approximately 2,500 families to leave Cape Breton. Instead of this predicted scenario, however, the loss of profitability resulted in the sale in 1968 of the Coke Ovens Complex to a Crown corporation, Cape Breton Development Corporation. At the same time, the steel plant was bought by the provincial government, and in the mid-1970s, the Coke Ovens came under control of the provincial government. As jobs were still being provided, significant government social assistance was not yet required.
Although jobs were saved, environmental degradation continued unabated and pollution levels escalated under government control. While total pollution emission estimates for ninety years of plant operation are difficult to determine, as records were either unavailable or incomplete in 1980, local residents were deeply concerned about the pollution emanating from the Steel Mills/Coke Ovens sites (Furimsky 2002). The first official studies of environmental contamination were conducted in the early 1980s by the federal department of fisheries and indicated levels of PAHs in lobsters to be 200 times higher than anywhere else on Cape Breton Island (Sirota et al. 1984). This finding led to the closure of fisheries operations in the area, a further economic blow to the community. Recently, soil levels for lead, arsenic and some PAHs have been found to be above Canadian guidelines for the three communities situated closest to the Tar Ponds known as Whitney Pier, Ashby and the North End (Lambert and Lane 2004). These contaminants were also found to be present on floors of houses in these communities at loading levels that could potentially cause harm to young children. This study determined that these three communities were at an increased risk from lead, arsenic and PAH exposure and needed to be included in the tar pond remediation policy (Lambert and Lane 2004).
Numerous human health studies have been conducted in the area, some controversially so, by linking adverse health outcomes with 'lifestyle risk factors' found in this island population (Lavigne 1987). Recently, a cancer study, particularly with respect to stomach, breast and lung cancers, found mortality rates to be 16 percent higher in industrial Cape Breton County than the...
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