‘A great disrespect to the people of Fort Chipewyan’

Alberta Health brands study as ‘misleading’ before receiving final report

The Alberta government has attempted to discredit a new study showing higher-than-normal contaminant levels downstream from the oilsands without having seen the final report Fast Forward has learned.

“Alberta Health and Wellness has reviewed the report and we find it is misleading” said Alberta Health and Wellness spokesperson Howard May in an e-mail sent November 13 less than two hours after he told Fast Forward he hadn’t seen the final report on water and sediment contamination near Fort Chipewyan. When asked how he could call the study “misleading” when he hadn’t seen the finished report May said Alberta Health had reviewed a draft.

Sherwood Park ecologist Kevin Timoney the report’s author calls Alberta Health’s use of and response to the draft a “dirty trick” that shows “a great disrespect to the people of Fort Chipewyan.” “How do you review a report you haven’t seen?” says Timoney. “These people are so desperate to keep the lid on this situation that they will stoop to any means to try to discredit scientists.”

Timoney says the Alberta government obtained a confidential draft that was leaked without authorization. The Nunee Health Authority in Fort Chipewyan had sent a draft to Health Canada in early November because it wanted the department to issue an advisory asking pregnant women to abstain from eating local fish because of high mercury levels. (Timoney’s study says mercury levels in walleye and whitefish exceed those deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and “the human fetus is the most sensitive age group.”)

After receiving the draft Wadieh Yacoub Health Canada’s medical officer of health for First Nations in Alberta sent it to Alberta Health — and Timoney says that wasn’t supposed to happen. However Yacoub says he had an obligation to share it with his provincial counterpart. “It was only shared with the public health authorities” says Yacoub. “Why? Because it has a public health impact…. I’m a bit surprised that they’re concerned since they have decided to go straight to the community and talk about it in public without the input of public health authorities.” Yacoub also says an advisory would be the province’s jurisdiction — not Health Canada’s.

Timoney’s study which was commissioned by the Nunee Health Authority and peer reviewed by University of Alberta water ecologist David Schindler and two other scientists says the people and fish in the Fort Chipewyan area are being exposed to higher levels of arsenic mercury and polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) — some of which are carcinogenic — than those upstream. Residents have long been worried that oilsands development could be causing health problems particularly cancer in their community which is located on the western shore of Lake Athabasca.

“When you live in this community and you hear and you know that people are dying from different diseases — that is a concern” says Dana Wylie a board member for the Fort Chipewyan Metis Association. “The study is more than anything just another realization that we are affected by what’s happening in Fort McMurray.”

However Timoney says his study doesn’t link the contamination to oilsands. “It’s not possible right now scientifically to say how much of this situation is caused by industrial activity” says Timoney adding that more study is required. “We’re working on that and that’ll take us probably a couple more years to sort out.”

Allan Adam chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation says the findings of Timoney’s study are “not news to us.” “It simply supports what we have been saying to this government of Alberta and to industry for decades” he says. “This is only a start to proving that there is a direct link to oilsands development and our health.”

Alberta Health has steadfastly insisted that the community’s health concerns are unfounded and Timoney’s draft hasn’t changed the department’s stance. “There is nothing new in these allegations” says May. “We have been looking into them for some two years.” The government did a quick statistical analysis into cancer in Fort Chipewyan last July that concluded cancer rates weren’t higher than normal. Even though nobody in Fort Chipewyan believes a word of the resulting six-page report Alberta Health says it’s sufficient. “We stand by that analysis unless and until we are provided with further evidence” says May.

In March Alberta Health also did a study on arsenic levels in moose meat and cattails. The study disputed the findings of a 2006 Golder Associates study commissioned by Suncor which said the cancer risk in the Fort Chipewyan area is equivalent to 450 extra cases of cancer in a population of 100000 people. Alberta Health’s study concluded that the Golder study was incorrect. (In the legislature November 13 Health Minister Dave Hancock said “we’re satisfied that arsenic levels in the area are actually lower than in other areas.”)

However Timoney found Alberta Health used “questionable statistical methods” and underestimated the amount of fish consumed by locals to arrive at its conclusions. “Alberta Health and Wellness and the Alberta government in general has a preconceived notion and a policy that states there is no problem — period” Timoney says. “So regardless of the data they always reach the same conclusion.”

John O’Connor Fort Chipewyan’s longtime doctor calls the government’s response to Timoney’s study “utterly unbelievable.” “I’m disgusted” says O’Connor who has taken heat from both the provincial and federal governments for speaking out about health concerns in the community. (Earlier this year Health Canada filed several complaints against O’Connor with the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons. One complaint is still pending.) “More than anything (the study) underlines and emphasizes the need for an immediate baseline human health study in the community” says O’Connor who has repeatedly called for a health study. “And for God’s sake now would you please listen to the community — especially the elders? They’ve been ignored completely. And they were right all along.”