Evaluating Risk After a Hazardous Waste Treatment Plant Released Persistent Organic Pollutants

Part 3, Aboriginal Health Risk and Impact

Bibliographic Data

ID19578955
AuthorsTee L Guidotti (0000-0002-8651-6950, University of Alberta, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume2
Issue1
Pages1-7
Publication date2018-12-31
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCase Studies in the Environment (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2473-9510 • E-ISSN: 2473-9510
PublisherUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/cse.2018.001099
OpenAlexW2798089054
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited4

On 16 October 1996, a malfunction at the Swan Hills Special Waste Treatment Center (SHSWTC) in Alberta, Canada, released an undetermined quantity of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) into the atmosphere, including polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, and furans. The circumstances of exposure are detailed in Part 1, Background and Policy Issues. An ecologically based, staged health risk assessment was conducted in two parts with two levels of government as sponsors. The first, called the Swan Hills Study, is described in Part 2. A subsequent evaluation, described here in Part 3, was undertaken by Health Canada and focused exclusively on Aboriginal residents in three communities living near the lake, downwind, and downstream of the SHSWTC of the area. It was designed to isolate effects on members living a more traditional Aboriginal lifestyle. Aboriginal communities place great cultural emphasis on access to traditional lands and derive both cultural and health benefits from “country foods” such as venison (deer meat) and local fish. The suspicion of contamination of traditional lands and the food supply made risk management exceptionally difficult in this situation. The conclusion of both the Swan Hills and Lesser Slave Lake studies was that although POPs had entered the ecosystem, no effect could be demonstrated on human exposure or health outcome attributable to the incident. However, the value of this case study is in the detail of the process, not the ultimate dimensions of risk. The findings of the Lesser Slave Lake Study have not been published previously and are incomplete

Environmental health · Environmental planning · Environmental protection · Fish · Fishery · Geography · Hazardous waste · Human health · Pollutant · Risk assessment · Waste management · Engineering · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities · Medicine · Risk Perception and Management · Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact · Ecology

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