Swift action needed to address harmful chemicals affecting Aamjiwnaang First Nation: researcher

A Windsor-based researcher is calling for swift action to address the situation in Aamjiwnaang First Nation, where  members say industrial benzene emissions in the Sarnia, Ont., area are making them sick.

James Brophy, an adjunct professor at the University of Windsor, said there has been sufficient data for a very long time that should have prompted the authorities to take action.

Brophy, who's also a long-time environmental health researcher in southwestern Ontario, pointed to a study looking at postal codes, which found that Sarnia had one of the highest rates of acute myeloid leukemia in Canada.

He said while there were limitations to the study, the overwhelming evidence of high toxic releases including substances like benzene, years of ill health especially among the industrial workers and exposed populations like Aamjiwnaang, should have led to a major public health inquiry. 

"What I fear here is that the government will try once again to divert its responsibilities, which now call for them to immediately address these exposures in these facilities and to, if necessary, shut them down until they're properly controlled," Brophy told CBC News.  

"You cannot have a forest fire like this going on at your doorstep and, you know, say, well, we'll see if it ever hits your house, when there's no question, there's no scientific debate about the danger that these toxic substances pose."

WATCH | Aamjiwnaang residents talk about symptoms as airborne chemical levels are reported:

Aamjiwnaang residents talk about symptoms as airborne chemical levels are reported

7 months ago

Duration 3:58

Aamjiwnaang First Nation said it sent its employees home Tuesday as they were complaining of headaches, nausea and dizziness — symptoms associated with high levels of benzene.

According to preliminary data from pollutant monitors in the region, multiple times this month, the air quality was recorded as poor and moderate from benzene levels. 

The First Nation blames the pollution on the operations of INEOS Styrolution, which produces chemicals used in plastic and rubber products. The facility is just one of many industrial companies in an area that environmental advocates have called "chemical valley." 

Brophy said he and his research partner have had a long relationship with the First Nation community starting in the early 2000s after a serious benzene spill occurred at Nova Chemical in Sarnia, which shares a fence line with the Aamjiwnaang community.

He said even in those early days, residents expressed that they had major concerns about the health of their children.

"They had a whole list of issues that they were dealing with with their children…and we worked with them for seven or eight years on a weekly basis, if not a daily basis about these issues," he said.

INEOS Styrolution told CBC news in an email Wednesday that it understands Aamjiwnaang First Nation's concerns and is "carefully reviewing this data and any concerns." 

It said that site works closely with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks to "ensure we stay within the prescribed emissions limits." 

In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for Environment Minister Andrea Khanjin confirmed that compliance officers have been conducting site visits at INEOS and a mobile air monitoring unit is in place.

At the federal level, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada says work is already underway to address concerns around emissions and "enforcing the regulations," in the Sarnia area.

"More recently, the government published proposed regulations to further reduce emissions of these harmful air pollutants, including carcinogenic benzene," said Samantha Bayard in an emailed statement.  

"About 250 facilities, including the INEOS Styrolution facility, would be subject to these regulations, which we are committed to finalizing as quickly as possible."

Brophy said the reason that benzene is such a concern is that it's a definitive human carcinogen, 

"There's no question about its relationship to causing cancer in humans, particularly blood related cancers like leukemia, lymphoma," he said.

"In exposed populations we find very high rates of these diseases in these populations and that's why the International Agency on the Research of Cancer, IRC, has defined it as a definitive human carcinogen.

"From the very first, even though asbestos disease was so widespread in Sarnia, our concern was about the ongoing daily exposures to these toxic chemicals that were there because you saw them. I mean, everybody was aware of them. It's a part of the whole manufacturing process. These chemicals are generated there. So we were very concerned about it."

Former environment ministry staffer concerned about long-term risk

Scott Grant is an air pollution control engineer who used to work for Ontario's environment ministry. He was once a whistle blower, submitting complaints about the risk that toxic chemicals posed to Aamjiwnaang. After retiring from the government, he now works with the first nation.

"We think this has been going on for decades and we're just now realizing how high it is," Grant said.

"So you have to be concerned with the long term exposure this community has seen."

According to the Ontario government, the standard for exposure in an hour is 0.3 micrograms per cubic meter. Recently in Aamjiwnaang, readings topped 150, according to readers the First Nation had installed in 2019. 

"You're now approaching about 300 times what you would see in the community that I live in," Grant said. "Maybe six months ago it was maybe 100 times. So there's been a significant jump up, but even within the last couple years, 100 times is still very high."

Grant says the issue comes down to enforcement of regulations, where he thinks the Ontario government could do more. 

And, he says, the First Nation needs to be able to determine their own rules and enforcement. 

"There's injustice here, there's environmental racism that's buried in all of this," he said. "I think to start to unwind that, to get true reconciliation, we have to recognize their sovereignty and recognize that they have a seat at the table."

Province must shut down chemical plant: Green Party

On Friday, Ontario Greens Deputy Leader and MPP for Kitchener Centre Aislinn Clancy called on the provincial government to shut down INEOS Styrolution.

"No one in Ontario should be subjected to the kind of toxic air contamination that has become day-to-day life for the residents of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation," Clancy wrote in a statement. 

She said governments have allowed manufacturers in the area to pump out toxic air contaminants that pose serious health risks to the surrounding communities for far too long.

"Allowing this kind of environmental racism to persist in our province is absolutely shameful, and it must come to an end today," Clancy said.

"The Ford government must respond to the Aamjiwnaang First Nation's concerns immediately — not with more studies or reports, but with firm action to close the INEOS Styrolution plant."

Issues of environmental racism at play: advocate

Meanwhile, Ecojustice Canada, an environmental law group, is heading to Ottawa next week to meet with delegates from nations around the world to call for change.

The organization's law reform manager, Melissa Gorrie, said there are issues of environmental racism at play at Aamjiwnaang First Nation, pointing to "the disproportionate impacts and harm to communities that are racialized or otherwise marginalized in society."

"What we often see is that, you know, facilities are not placed in, to be blunt, white, wealthy neighbourhoods. The people that are bearing the brunt of pollution, and in this case specifically plastic pollution, are often Indigenous nations, other front-line communities that are otherwise being disadvantaged."

Next week, from Apr. 23 to Apr. 29, Canada will welcome the world to Ottawa for the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) at the Shaw Centre to advance the development of a global agreement on plastic pollution by the end of 2024.

During the conference, the Canadian delegation, led by Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, will convene with international partners from around the world to help drive ambition and alignment on addressing plastic pollution.

Delegations from Aamjiwnaang First Nation will also be at the Ottawa meeting.