UNIROYAL/LANXESS PROPAGANDA & PUBLIC RELATIONS CONTINUE

 I suspect that there are some at the Woolwich Observer holding their noses regarding yesterday's front page story titled "Lanxess study finds Canagagigue contaminants pose no unacceptable risk".  At least I certainly hope so. There are three parts to that title that should raise eyebrows with the thinkers among us. "Lanxess study..." Really? Lanxess do their own studies of the mess their predecessor (Uniroyal) made? Isn't that some kind of conflict of interest? Not in Woolwich apparently. Secondly "...Canagagigue contaminants..."   Oh so they are admitting that there are (chemical) contaminants in the Creek. Thirdly "...no unacceptable risk".  So there are risks involved but according to the legal owner of the pollution, those risks are acceptable...to him, to you and I, to the Mennonite residents along the Creek???

Risk calculations trump everything else apparently. We have dosed those downstream residents with some of the most highly toxic compounds known to humanity namely both NDMA and dioxins/furans. While by now the more soluble NDMA should have thinned out somewhat, the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) remain. Some of them include DDT, PCBs, dioxins/furans, mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). 

Read the story and carefully note each and every name in the story agreeing with the Risk Assessment. In my opinion those are not good people.  Read the numbers that the reporter has included in the story. 83 samples out of 162 exceeded the Interim Sediment Quality Guidelines (ISQG), 11 by a large amount (PEL). Note carefully that one of the sediment samples taken had a concentration of dioxin at 1,090 pg/g which is 1100 times greater than the criteria of .85 pg/g  (decimal 85). That is an outrageous concentration and along with many others puts the lie to "acceptable risks". 

Where is our Ministry of Environment in this? They are and have been in the local industry's (Uniroyal) pocket for decades. They are primarily present to run interference for industrial polluters and they do one hell of a job. As Mr. Makin, Lanxess representative states "We would defer to the regulatory agencies and the government on this". It's nice having the environmental regulator on a leash when you trot him out for a walk now and then.