Physicians publish pamphlet warning of air pollution
Illustration from Kamloops Physicians publication showing wind directions.
NEWS/ AJAX — Taking a page from the KGHM book, Kamloops Physicians for a Healthy Environment today (Friday) released its views on the potential impact of the proposed Ajax open-pit mine, saying there’s no more room for air pollution in Kamloops.
KGHM International has distributed brochures in the past promoting the mine project. The Kamloops Physicians today issued an illustrated pamphlet of their own, publishing it on the society’s website and distributing it as a newspaper insert.
The group says it “demonstrates that there is already too much particulate air pollution in the city of Kamloops. An additional mine on the upwind outskirts of the city would only worsen air quality and negatively impact the health of the people in the city.”
A press release announcing the pamphlet said B.C.’s air quality guideline for fine particulate matter reached the provincial maximum in Kamloops in 2012 and exceeded it in 2013. It said Highland Valley Copper was Canada’s second highest emitter of fine particulates in 2012 and New Gold’s New Afton underground mine was third highest.
“The construction of yet another major mine on the southern edge of the city should not be permitted,” it said.
Dr. Jill Calder, a member of Kamloops Physicians for a Healthy Environment, said air pollution needs to be reduced, not increased.
The four-page “fact sheet” can be seen at http://www.kphe.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
What a load of garbage this is.
Fact 3: It is known for certain that additional particles in the air will reduce air quality monitored by the province of BC.
That statement has no bearing on Ajax, or Kamloops. It’s the same as saying “Driving your car will reduce air quality”. Yet the brochure twists the language to infer some sort of link with Ajax.
The PM2.5 scale is also manipulated. It starts at 5.6, rather than 0. If you draw the entire bar graph starting from 0, it looke MUCH DIFFERENT than starting from 5.6.
Fact 4: Higher levels of PM2.5 and PM10 will lead to ill health for more people and more premature deaths.
Grossly misstated. I thought these doctors were statisticians as well. They would know that health assessments extrapolate from dose responses. Hypothetically, a single particle of PM2.5 can be statistically extrapolated to show an increase in premature death. Even if that increase is 0.00000000000000001% of a life.
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And Terry Lake says?……
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Yes, where does our “Minister of Health” stand on this issue???
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Terry who? The minister of free enterprise? That guy?
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Well done doctors. Back to you KGHM! Actually, you never really had nor will have anything KGHM!
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Love that they included all their references and data sources!
http://www.kphe.ca/fact-sheet-references.php
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I believe Dr. Peter Barss wrote to Dr. Perry Kendall, BC’s Chief Medical Health Officer at the time, with similar thoughts in June of 2012. Thank you KPHE and others for keeping the ball rolling.
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