Hold Your Breath!

In response to a new report on air pollution in the tar sands released by Environmental Defence today, an Alberta government spokesman claimed of a spike in hydrogen sulphide:

"It's a nuisance issue, it's an odour issue, it's not a health issue," he said. "If you look at our overall air quality numbers, they're showing that 95 per cent of the time the air quality is good."

We found that air pollution in the tar sands region was at levels above what the Alberta government considers safe, known as "exceedances", 1,556 times in the 2009. High hydrogen sulphide levels were the main culprit.

Yet the World Health Organization says that exposure has respiratory, neurological and cardiovascular effects in humans, and that seniors and children are most at risk. Because of the serious toxic effects of exposure to high concentrations for very short time periods, it recommends that all exposure should be avoided. That hardly sounds like a mere nuisance issue, and residents in nearby Fort McKay have been raising concerns about the health impacts of that rotten egg smell wafting into their community on a routine basis.


The growing air pollution problem of the tar sands is another example of the federal government dropping the ball on its responsibility to protect the environment and human health. Three years ago, Prime Minister Harper promised to put mandatory caps on particularly harmful air pollution from industry. But with still nothing in place to clamp down on pollution, tar sands companies are pumping more and more dangerous pollutants into the air.


The spike in hydrogen sulphide is part of a larger trend. We found that the tar sands industry released almost double the amount of volatile organic compounds (which includes highly carcinogenic pollutants like benzene) in 2008 than it did in 2002, and nitrogen oxides rose by 50%.


If air quality is good 95% of the time as the Alberta government claims, will residents be asked to just hold their breath for the 5% of the time it's bad? It's time for the federal government to live up to its promise and put a cap on air pollution from the tar sands.

Gillian McEachern
Program Manager, Climate and Energy