Breaking A Steel Town's Biggest Taboo
Are Public Health Authorities Protecting Us From Industrial Air Pollution?
In the summer months, the splash pad in Sault Ste. Marie’s beloved Bellevue Park is brimming with children.
Nestled on a shoreline that enters the city’s more affluent east end, locals have argued that such a popular amenity ought to be more accessible to children across the city.
Keen to address that disparity, the City of Sault Ste. Marie is constructing another splash pad, this time at Manzo Park in the west end neighbourhood of Bayview.
While it’s known for its proximity to a steel mill that’s more than a century old, Bayview is almost exclusively residential.
The only thing separating it from Algoma Steel is a tall wall and some trees along its eastern and southern edges.
Image Credit: Dax D’Orazio
Due to its proximity to industry, complaints about wretched air quality are as old as the neighbourhood.
Two years ago, Bayview was highlighted by real estate agents as having some of the lowest housing prices in the country.
According to a 2021 report submitted to City Council by the Director of Community Services, Brent Lamming, Bayview features a high density of children.
Approximately 17 per cent of its residents are 14 or younger.
The report also outlines several reasons why Manzo Park was eventually selected for a new splash pad, including: pre-existing infrastructure, potential overlap in staffing, complementary social programming, low maintenance costs, buffers for additional parking, target demographics, and proximity to bus routes.
What wasn’t mentioned is the fact that Manzo Park is approximately 500 metres from aging coke ovens that distill coal for the steelmaking process.
Image Credit: City of Sault Ste. Marie - Conceptual Design from Report
As previously reported at Canada’s National Observer, Algoma Steel is the beneficiary of regulatory exemptions for cancer-causing pollutants like benzene and benzo(a)pyrene.
Although the company may be on track to phase out coal from its production process by the end of the decade, it recently applied for an interim regulatory exemption that’s almost nine times the provincial air quality standard for benzene and 530 times the provincial air quality standard for benzo(a)pyrene.
That reporting prompted an open letter from more than three dozen local academics asking both levels of government to address the issue.
It also prompted a formal response from Sault Ste. Marie’s MPP, Ross Romano, and the company’s CEO, Michael Garcia.
Matthew Adams is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga and part of an ongoing ambient air quality study across Hamilton, the home of Ontario’s other two steel mills that distill coal.
He says benzene and benzo(a)pyrene are both “known carcinogens” based on previous studies. The latter “can bind to your DNA to cause mutations,” and research has consistently confirmed their connection to cancer in humans.
Peer-reviewed research has highlighted clusters of relatively higher cancer rates in industrial areas of the province, including Sault Ste. Marie.
Other peer-reviewed research has revealed that exposure to air pollution from cokemaking emissions can cause genetic damage.
Image Credit: University of Toronto Mississauga - Dr. Matthew Adams
Distilling coal also generates ample amounts of airborne particulate matter, a concerning pollutant that carries risks for heart and lung diseases.
In sum, “people living in proximity to Algoma Steel are going to be at a greater risk for these health effects. That’s just the reality,” according to Adams.
Despite the elevated health risks posed by industry, research on the potential connections between air pollution and negative health outcomes from public health authorities is sparse.
In a city where a single company is viewed as an economic backbone, criticism of industry from anyone influential is equally sparse.
Emails to Sault Ste. Marie’s Mayor, Matthew Shoemaker, and its City Council asking whether exposure to air pollution was considered when the City chose its new splash pad location went unanswered.
In 2021, a local MECP official wrote to the CEO and Medical Officer of Health of Algoma Public Health (APH), Dr. Jennifer Loo, to inform her that Algoma Steel’s air emissions modeling revealed non-compliance with stricter pollution limits that came into effect the previous year.
Nonetheless, when asked how often the regional Board of Health grapples with the issue, its Chair, Sally Hagman, said she had “not heard issues related to Algoma Steel and industrial pollution” during her four-year tenure.
If members of the community are unhappy with APH and its responsiveness to the issue, Hagman encourages them to connect with the Board for further discussion.
Dr. Loo did not respond to a request for an interview.
Two former Bayview residents worry that not enough is being done to address the negative effects of air pollution.
The couple spoke on the condition of anonymity, worried about the potential repercussions for publicly criticizing Algoma Steel.
Last summer, they were in the process of clearing out their home, the last step in a departure of Bayview for a cottage to the north of Sault Ste. Marie.
Combined, the pair said they have 75 years in the neighbourhood.
When asked what motivated the move, their response is automatic: “filth.”
Another motivating factor is a throat cancer diagnosis.
He took six months off work while she underwent several bouts of radiation therapy.
During her medical treatment, a specialist told the pair that Bayview is a “high percentage area of cancer.”
They were also advised to leave the neighbourhood if it was within their means.
The subsequent decision was easy, and they won’t be looking back.
In 2015, APH published a report about cancer in the region.
It’s based, in part, on a separate report from Public Health Ontario (PHO) that was obtained through a freedom of information request.
That report was commissioned by APH and focused on potential links between pollution from Algoma Steel and local cancer risks.
Image Credit: Public Health Ontario (Cover Page of Report for APH)
The major source of data is ambient air quality monitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Bayview between 2011 and 2013.
The report concludes that ambient concentrations of benzo(a)pyrene recorded in Bayview weren’t disproportionately high when compared to other locations where wood heating and urban transportation leads to elevated levels.
Most importantly, its risk assessment shows that a lifetime of exposure at the median concentration of PAHs wouldn’t pose a significantly increased cancer risk.
Its summary includes this:
“While it is clear from the measurements of PAHs in soil and air that there are elevated concentrations of PAHs present in the Bayview neighbourhood, likely originating from the steel mill, the results of the risk assessment predict that less than a single PAH related cancer would be expected to occur in residents of the neighbourhood as a result of exposure to PAHs. While cancer statistics at the neighbourhood level are not available, review of cancer statistics for the smallest area available, Sault Ste. Marie, did not reveal evidence of an excess of cancers potentially related to PAHs.”
The PHO analysis assumes a median concentration of 0.00047 micrograms of benzo(a)pyrene per cubic metre.
In its own words, Algoma Steel has progressively reduced emissions over time, largely because of an action plan that’s been implemented in collaboration with Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP).
Nonetheless, the data from 2011-2013 that are used in the report appear to be significantly lower than current emissions.
The current regulatory limit for the company’s benzo(a)pyrene emissions is 0.004 micrograms per cubic metre (annual average), a target it couldn’t meet when it came into effect in 2020.
The company was subsequently able to apply for a higher regulatory limit of 0.0053 micrograms per cubic metre (annual average), although the MECP hasn’t formally approved it yet.
That means the risk assessment relied upon by APH and PHO used a median concentration that’s a mere twelve percent of the company’s current regulatory limit, and nine percent of the new limit sought.
The PHO analysis also makes no mention of another carcinogen (benzene) that’s released by the company at significantly higher levels than provincial air quality standards dictate.
The World Health Organization recommendations state benzene has “no safe level of exposure” due to its carcinogenic properties.
And according to the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, “long-term exposure to high levels of benzene in the air can cause leukemia.”
An appendix in the PHO report shows that Sault Ste. Marie’s rate of childhood leukemia (1996-2009) is disproportionately higher than both the provincial average and a comparator.
Image Credit: Public Health Ontario
None of the stakeholders would speak to the accuracy of the ambient air quality data from Algoma Steel, even though it’s used to make confident conclusions about the allegedly minimal cancer risks posed by Algoma Steel’s air pollution.
The company didn’t respond to questions about the reliability of data supplied to PHO.
Similarly, APH didn’t respond to questions focused on the research it commissioned from PHO.
Its Communications Manager, Leonardo Vecchio, said the organization “cannot speak to the additional context… since this report was commissioned nearly a decade ago and we are not the authors.”
An email to the PHO researcher that’s listed as the contact for the report went unanswered.
PHO didn’t say why its analysis omitted benzene emissions and it “was not involved in the collection of data or any laboratory analytical decisions that determined which parameters are included.”
It referred to Algoma Steel and the MECP for questions related to ambient air quality data.
According to PHO, the data it received were supplied by Algoma Steel (then Essar) to APH.
The MECP confirmed that the same data were supplied to the ministry but said it “cannot comment” on its reliability.
PHO simply assumed the accuracy of the data it was supplied.
In its words: “PHO conducted the assessment at the request of Algoma Public Health and used the data provided to us at the time.”
Neither the City of Sault Ste. Marie nor APH would answer questions about the safety of children potentially exposed to elevated levels of carcinogens at Manzo Park.
Instead, both pointed to the MECP’s mandate and expertise.
When asked about children being exposed to emissions at the new splash pad, the MECP said it “shares community concerns about air quality and exposures to contaminants such as benzo(a)pyrene. That is why the ministry is working with Algoma [Steel] to reduce the emissions of these contaminants.”
A local doctor thinks much more investigation is required.
Rob Suppes is originally from Winnipeg but has been practicing medicine locally for more than a decade.
His practice mostly includes the hospital’s emergency department, with additional time in a walk-in clinic.
He estimates he’s “probably seen 25,000 people in the community,” which roughly equates to a third of the city.
He deals with the harsh realities of cancer on “every single shift” and his practice is unfortunately beset by countless cancer “horror stories,” as he describes them.
Image Credit: Supplied - Dr. Rob Suppes
He’s not convinced that lifestyle factors (like smoking) mostly account for relatively higher incidences of cancer. “You can make the argument that some of it is from that, but statistically, it doesn’t fully account for it,” he says.
Given the elevated cancer profile of Sault Ste. Marie, he’s “baffled” by the lack of attention given to the issue by local health authorities and says “it doesn’t make any sense.”
As a modest health unit representing a relatively small population, APH arguably lacks the capacity to undertake research in this area on its own.
As such, APH advises they “do not have any precise, local level primary research demonstrating an isolated connection between local emissions and human health effects.”
Adams describes this type of research as “tricky.”
Even in contexts in which health risks are disproportionately high, cancer rarely manifests itself in a simple cause and effect relationship. And in a small neighbourhood that’s exposed to air pollution, those with negative health outcomes may be too small of a research sample to make confident conclusions.
While parks located in proximity to industry are “not ideal,” recreational infrastructure that’s accessible for children across the city is nonetheless important.
For those already living in proximity to Algoma Steel and routinely exposed, spending time at Manzo Park may be unlikely to increase overall health risks, and outdoor activity could even be a net health benefit.
In general, calculating such health risks is challenging, due to a range of factors and variables impacting health.
When asked about what might explain relatively local higher cancer rates, APH tends to highlight various personal and lifestyle factors that pose increased risks, including “baseline health status, age, smoking, poor diet, alcohol consumption, obesity, etc.”
Additional challenges include quantifying the length and intensity of exposures to carcinogens, accounting for cumulative effects over lengthy periods of time, and collecting health data for a relatively small population.
Accordingly, APH says “a study would need to be conducted over many years or decades and may not find an association due to our smaller population.”
Unfortunately, these challenges may be insurmountable, at least for APH.
They say “it would be challenging, if not impossible, to determine or conclude if steel production emissions at the local level have contributed to incidences of a specific health effect like cancer.”
Jim Brophy is an occupational and environmental health researcher.
Based on decades of experience in public interest advocacy, he’s unsurprised by the reaction of public health authorities to industrial pollution.
Image Credit: Supplied - Jim Brophy
He says there are strong correlations between steelmaking emissions and negative health outcomes among workers.
In an occupational health setting, these emissions have long been associated with lung cancer but also blood-related cancers like leukemia and lymphoma.
Brophy is dismayed by a lack of interest in using data to connect dots and improve public health and safety. He argues “the cancer establishment is absolutely opposed to using their data to find any potential associations and identify populations at risk.”
For Brophy, the lack of an appetite to research residential risks from air pollution can be attributed to the inconvenience of possible connections.
He says it’s common for government and industry stakeholders to downplay occupational and environmental factors that might contribute to increased cancer risks. Instead, the “default position” tends to be highlighting lifestyle factors in blue-collar communities, like smoking and poor diets.
Government health agencies are largely abdicating their responsibility, according to Brophy. Except for the occasional whistleblower that informs the public of potential risks, “their official role is, essentially, to keep the lid on the garbage can.”
Research is also hindered by economic, methodological, and technical challenges, highlighting a desperate need for reliable data collection and analysis.
But the couple that departed Bayview didn’t wait for more research.
Frustrated by what they characterized as a double standard, they were looking forward to the solitude of rural living.
According to them, if they dropped their garbage at the doorstep of Algoma Steel, they could face arrest.
Conversely, Bayview residents consistently bear the burden of wretched air quality and don’t feel like there’s any accountability from industry.
Notwithstanding their frustration, the departed couple wants the company and everyone who works there to thrive.
There’s no question that “a healthy community needs good paying jobs,” one said.
However, they argued that the environmental mindset of previous generations can’t become history soon enough.
“Clean up your act” is their simple advice.