The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
An interesting anecdote made its way around Flin Flon following word that much of our soil contains health guideline-exceeding metal levels. It revolved around how there were evidently a handful of area residents, four to be precise, who were at least 100 years old. The implication was that since these individuals had reached the century milestone, the book was closed on whether metals in the soil and air carried potential health impacts. It was a classic example of an unscientific conclusion. Four people out of thousands get really old, thus there is absolutely no cause for concern whatsoever? Hardly a rational deduction. George Burns lived to be 100, but no one tries to say cigars are health neutral. And is flat-out death really the only measure that matters? Shouldn't we consider the possibility of non-mortal bodily affects? Of course unlike the late Mr. Burns' cigars, more study is needed Ð and is in fact ongoing Ð to pinpoint what, if any, health hazards stem from smelter-borne metals in our environment. The human-health risk assessment, funded by HBMS and conducted with government and community oversight, was not initiated because the risk associated with these metals is confirmedly zero. Instead of pre-judging the conclusion Ð either by suggesting the metals are totally harmless or by unwarrantedly exaggerating their influence Ð it is vital to employ a wait-and-see approach. The same study that identified high metal levels in the soil, stated that the risk to human health is most likely low. Everyone hopes that's the case, but time Ð not jumped-to conclusions over a few fortunate elderly people Ð will tell. A similar trend of unscientific downplaying has developed around Flin Flon's drinking water, which requires a multimillion-dollar treatment plant to meet tightening provincial health standards. Already the naysayers are out in full force. People who have sipped on Flin Flon tap water their whole lives insist nothing can be wrong because, after all, they are fine. Even that inappropriately black-and-white measurement of "nobody has died from drinking it" has cropped up. Yet everyday citizens, myself included, lack the same understanding of water and water data as experts within the Manitoba government. Now I know you can't always trust the government. It often has an agenda far different than what is publicly proclaimed. But on issues of health, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Besides, even outside experts like University of Winnipeg water biologist Dr. Eva Pip support the increasingly stringent water laws. Given the millions of dollars these rules will cost Flin Flon and other Manitoba centres, I tend to think that if it was all for naught, somebody would have said something by now. Fortunately the federal and provincial governments have done the right thing and agreed to give Flin Flon two-thirds funding for a new water treatment plant. When it comes to matters as basic as the environment in which we live and the water which we consume, listening to the experts is always more sensible than jumping to a layman's conclusion. Local Angle runs Fridays.
