Statscan Says Air and Water Quality Trends Threaten Health
Posted on: Wednesday, 14 December 2005, 21:00 CST
By DENNIS BUECKERT
OTTAWA (CP) - Deteriorating air and water quality are threatening Canadians' health, says Statistics Canada's first national report on environmental indicators.
But the blunt analysis in the report was softened in a news release issued by the federal agency, which omits any reference to health. There was no immediate word from the federal agency on why the report's observations on health conseqences were omitted from the release.
Concentrations of ground-level ozone - a key component in smog - increased by a national average of 16 per cent in the period from 1990 to 2003, says the report released Wednesday.
Ground-level ozone is created when traffic exhaust and other pollution from burning of fossil fuels interact in sunlight. It damages the lungs and causes breathing problems.
The report says the ozone levels were worst in Southern Ontario but does not say how much they increased in that region in the study period.
The federal agency surveyed water quality at sites across Canada and found that standards for acceptable levels of contamination were exceeded at least occasionally at most sites.
Quality was good at fewer than half of the monitoring sites, and "poor" or "marginal" at a quarter of the sites.
The report says greenhouse emissions in 2003 were 24 per cent above 1990 levels, consistent with previous data.
"These three indicators raise concerns - about Canada's environmental sustainability, our health and well-being and our economic performance," says the report.
"The trends for air quality and greenhouse gas emissions are pointing to greater threats to human health and the planet's climate.
"The water quality results show that guidelines are being exceeded, at least occasionally, at most of the selected monitoring sites."
But the findings about health were deleted from a news release issued by the federal agency.
It said only that "trends for air quality and greenhouse gas emissions both deteriorated between 1990 and 2003."
Source: Canadian Press
Related Articles
- Massachusetts Health Quality Partners Awarded Consulting Contract for State Quality and Cost Reporting Initiative
- Massachusetts Health Quality Partners Issues 2009 Report on Quality of Care
- TMF Health Quality Institute Earns URAC Accreditation
- Massachusetts Health Quality Partners Issues 2008 Report on Quality of Care
- When Minority Patients Have Insurance and a Medical Home, Their Health Care Improves, Says New Survey
- New Health Web Site AIDS the Undecided
- TMF Health Quality Institute Awarded Highly Sought After CMS Contract
- 31 Hospitals Receive Texas Health Care Quality Improvement Award From TMF Health Quality Institute for Providing Quality Care
- URAC Releases Health Web Site Accreditation Standards Version 2.0 for Public Comment
- Health Care Quality Bridges Political Divide - Clinton, Gingrich Accept 2005 Health Quality Awards
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds