Air Quality Concerns

Sunday, 1 June 2014 at 06:19

Locals asking for the County and MOE to address air quality issues immediately

INGERSOLL -- Some concerns for the safety of people in Oxford County have led a group of local citizens to formally request the Ministry of Environment and Oxford County to immediately address air quality issues.

Suzanne Crellin, of Ingersoll, is one resident who's requested an air quality impact test and says an annual report on the air quality around Beachville hasn't been completed since 2003.

"Some phone conversations with the MOE in London kind of turned up the fact that they hadn't produced any annual reports since then," Crellin says. "We know it hasn't improved and there's been kind of an eleven year gap in data. We're really interested to know what kind of successive particulate might be coming from some of the industrial quarrying areas and the areas where they're manufacturing cement and lime."

Crellin outlines the new request is now asking for study and updates on the "environmental and human health risks and impacts," saying the effects of harmful air quality levels can be far reaching.

"All the people that are living in the area, kids playing in school yards, people in their own yards and even what's getting into people's houses, because this particulate is very, very tiny and it's dust that's actually so small, you can't even see it."

In the past few years there have been a lot of studies done in Canada and the U.S. on the impacts of poor air quality on human health, says Crellin, who says particulate matter in the air can be harmful to humans over time.

"You have a chronic situation where you're breathing this in on an daily basis for years and years and it can lead to certain respiratory and cardiovascular conditions -- it can also aggravate the ones you already have. So if you have asthma, and you're exposed to particulate it can make it worse."

The group of citizens submitted their request to the Ministries of Labour, Health, Environment, Natural Resources, and Oxford County's Public Health unit.

The County heard their recent demand and promised to bring up residents concerns with the Ministry during upcoming discussions scheduled for later this week.

Crellin says those who want to support a request for a new study on air quality in the Beachville area can do so by contacting the County of Oxford or the London Regional MOE office.