Pollution
© Rob Gurdebeke, The Windsor StarSmoke is shown rising from Detroit's Zug Island industrial complex in this 2008 photo. Heavy industry in the Great Lakes region dumped four million kilograms of deadly chemicals into the air in 2007, according to a report by a Canada-U.S. coalition of environmental groups.
Canadian industries are pumping out more cancer-causing carcinogens than their U.S. counterparts in the Great Lakes region and Windsorites are among the hardest hit, says a binational coalition of environmental groups.

Four million kilograms of deadly chemicals -- including mercury, lead, formaldehyde and benzene -- were released by large industries into the air in 2007 from both sides of the border, according to the coalition's report Partners in Pollution 2.

The greatest level of toxins within the Great Lakes basin was found in the stretch between Sarnia and Windsor that included the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair and Detroit River areas, the report said.

"The potential to be in contact with toxic substances are higher there than elsewhere," said John Jackson, program director for Great Lakes United, a coalition of citizens groups that monitors toxic substances and participated in the study. "Of course, health is at risk with that."

But determining exact health risks is difficult because of a lack of studies and funding to support that work, he said.

"Cancer is a horrible thing, but it's only one of the impacts," Jackson said. "You have higher numbers of birth deformities, disruption of development of the brain and the ability to reproduce because these substances give a wide range of negative impacts."

Overall, 209 million kilograms of toxins were released into the Great Lakes region's air, land and water in 2007 from large industry -- the equivalent of 17,000 dump truck loads, Jackson said.

"If you looked at the shore where you live and watched 17,000 dump trucks back in and dump that much toxic substance into the basin you would find it horrifying," he said. "But because it's scattered from different sources you don't realize how much this is."

The greatest producers of toxins were listed as the Detroit Edison Monroe Power Plant (6.5 million kilograms), Lyondell Chemicals Inc. in Ashtabula, Ohio (2.4 million kilograms), Nanticoke Generating Station in Nanticoke, Ont. (2.3 million kilograms.), Lambton Generating Station in Courtright Ont. (2.1 million kilograms), Copper Cliff Smelter Complex in Copper Cliff, Ont. (1.8 million kilograms) and FirstEnergy Corp in Eastlake, Ohio (1.5 million kilograms).

Canadian facilities on average pumped almost three times more carcinogens -- the most deadly substances -- and more than twice the reproductive-developmental toxins than their U.S. counterparts, the report said.

The coalition also noted the amount of airborne toxins is severely underestimated in the report because only major industry was studied and not smaller business sources or transportation emissions.

The report shows we have a long way to go in terms of air quality, said Brian Stocks, air quality manager for the Ontario Lung Association based in Windsor. It's a shame more progress hasn't been achieved in the past 20 years since regional deadly air toxins were first attacked by government strategies, he said.

"There were a number of areas in the Great Lakes that were of great concern in the mid-1980s and 1990s," Stocks said. "This shows the onslaught on a daily basis of pollution we are still being exposed to."

It's not only the air being affected, but with rainfall the toxins enter the water, he said. Experts have told Stocks that the biggest source of mercury in area waterways is from airborne pollutants.