Alberta, between Anzac and Fort Chipewyan. Having engaged in
such monitoring since 1997, and with a decade of data collected,
WBEA director Carna MacEachern says that it seemed very timely to
look at the state of, and trends in, regional air quality.
Kindzierski and his University of Alberta–based team analyzed
data on air pollutants of particular interest to public health—oxides
of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, airborne particulate matter, ground
level ozone, total hydrocarbon, reduced sulphur compounds,
and carbon monoxide—in order to investigate behaviours and
trends in outdoor air quality in the region. Kindzierski found that
between 1998 and 2007, changes in concentrations were small or
did not occur at all for most of the air pollutants, and that the rate of
increase that was observed for other specific air pollutants was, in
almost all cases, very small. Kindzierski says, “These findings are
certainly positive from a public health perspective,” adding that, “the
potential for exposure that would pose a threat to public health is
very, very low.”
Simon Dyer, oilsands program director at the Pembina Institute,
is not so quick to agree. As a member of the WBEA, sustainability-
minded Pembina supports ongoing air quality studies in the re-
gion, but Dyer cautions against the tendency to overstate results.
Speaking on the title of the press release from the University of
“We don’t have five or six decades of
consistent bitumen extraction to examine....
To even begin to talk about real trends, you
need 20, 30 years of data to review.”
Dr. Warren Kindzierski, Lead Study Researcher, University of Alberta
Alberta, people living in communities near oilsands can breathe easy,
he says, “While the data collected certainly seems reasonable, there
are some concerns with the way results are drawn, or presented in a
way that is a little overblown, or at least a little oversimplified.”
Dyer looks at the study as a snapshot of a complicated situation,
and would like to see continued monitoring and analysis in order
to get a more complete picture. The WBEA, which endorses the
conclusion of the study, also commented on the wording of the
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