REGION OF WATERLOO HEALTH DEPARTMENT KNOWINGLY ALLOWED DIOXIN CONTAMINATION INTO OUR PUBLIC MILK SUPPLY ?

 

Sub-title : FATBERRY FROM GUELPH IS NOT THE SAME AS BLACKBERRY

Upon what evidence you ask do I write the title above regarding dioxin contaminated milk ? The evidence is partially in last Saturday's (Nov. 15/25) Waterloo Region Record in the article/expose by Terry Pender titled  "The long cleanup of Elmira's water contamination crisis". In that article we are advised by the reporter through Susan Bryant that "...the milk containers from dairy farms along the creek were tested for dioxin, but the study was poorly designed, and the sampling was not done properly. The group was told that if high levels were found in the milk, the farmers would lose their milk quota. Do you want that to happen she remembers being asked."

Ms. Bryant's response to the reporter about the question  was "You didn't feel you could reveal all of the information publicly at that point because you felt it was going to be terrible for that community,".  For me this is a watershed moment of a citizen in a position to uncover a public scandal regarding our milk supply allegedly choosing instead to protect 22 farm families income.  I will say that after 36 years of reading technical reports on groundwater, surface water, some minimal soil sampling, fish studies, sediments , floodplain soils, air issues etc. that poorly designed studies and sampling being done improperly were the standard behaviours of the four corporations (Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess) and their consultants. That was standard operating procedure and was always done to lessen and minimize concentrations and detections of toxic chemicals presumably to also lessen potential, future cleanup costs.

Just a reminder that thirty years prior to this meeting with the Old Order Mennonites, Silverwood Dairies then at the north end of town (Arthur St.), refused to accept milk from some of these downstream farms due to chemical taste and odour problems .  Was testing done then? What were the results? Was the testing fudged as it apparently was in the 1990s? How in God's name do our elected governments whether municipal, regional or provincial justify introducing dioxins, DDT, NDMA and the whole suite of Uniroyal toxins into our food supply AND TELL NO ONE EXCEPT OF COURSE SUSAN?