Secrecy no way to handle cancer study
Editorial appeared in Fort McMuray Today July 28, 2006.
Is there a cancer problem in Fort Chipewyan?
Many residents of the hamlet of 1,200 -- who are either stricken with the disease or know someone suffering from it -- say yes.
There are also the spaces in the graveyard that are occupied by cancer victims, their voices stilled by the disease.
This latter-day scourge has touched many lives. Billions of dollars are spent annually in Alberta in a bid to solve the riddle of cancer. It's serious money, and it's a serious disease.
It can hit suddenly, without warning. Although we're encouraged to live healthy lives, there are no guarantees offered to us by the medical profession.
Smoke three packs of cigarettes a day and you might live until you're hit by a bus at age 95. Eat your greens, never allow toxic substances into your body and keep in shape, and a spot may show up on an X-ray when you're 35.
People in Chip have remarked on a number of cases of cancer in recent years. They've been dismayed by not only the quantity, but the strange types of cancer that are not supposed to routinely show up.
Dr. John O'Connor, the Fort McMurray physician who treats patients in Chip on a regular basis, has raised alarms, too.
That tells most people that something's amiss.
O'Connor, along with most Chip residents, wants the matter probed.
At the recent hearings into Suncor Energy's Voyageur project, a study into the problem by the Alberta Cancer Board was released. The study didn't find an elevated incidence of cancer in Chip.
While doctors have given the institution a clean bill of health when it comes to freedom from influence, many Chip residents do not accept the outcome.
Pointing at the oilsands plants along the Athabasca River, they claim the rate is not only high, they know the cause.
There is no factual background for this conclusion. Not only can no one can say the plants are the cause of something, the fact that there's an elevated risk itself is still unproved.
It's important to listen to the voices of the people. But public policy is based on science.
A decade ago, an exhaustive study was done on the Athabasca River. It found no significant pollutants, but recommended further study.
(We should be aware that oil has leaked into the Athabasca for thousands of years. Mother Nature's gift was revealed to aboriginal people here as it dribbled from the riverbanks.)
It makes sense to study this phenomenon more. It makes sense to involve a wide range of Fort Chipewyan in the study, so they validate and support whatever conclusions are arrived at.
If there's a higher incidence of the dreaded disease, we need to know it. If there's an environmental cause, let it come out.
So far, the chances of this happening are not good.
A meeting in the community to discuss the subject was held behind closed doors on Tuesday. Everyone involved in that consultation -- from the Nunee health board, to federal and provincial officials -- should be ashamed of themselves.
If they're going to explore this issue in secrecy -- going against the trend in society to openness and transparency -- no one will believe their eventual conclusions.
It will be a wasted effort.
A level of distrust on this issue among local residents has built up ever since the cancer board study was released to the oilsands hearing in Fort McMurray, not a town hall forum in Chip.
Meanwhile, more cases of cancer are being diagnosed, and questions multiply.
People in the hamlet not only need their questions answered, they need their fears calmed.
Secrecy will only make a bad situation worse.
© Copyright 2006, Fort McMurray Today.
Is there a cancer problem in Fort Chipewyan?
Many residents of the hamlet of 1,200 -- who are either stricken with the disease or know someone suffering from it -- say yes.
There are also the spaces in the graveyard that are occupied by cancer victims, their voices stilled by the disease.
This latter-day scourge has touched many lives. Billions of dollars are spent annually in Alberta in a bid to solve the riddle of cancer. It's serious money, and it's a serious disease.
It can hit suddenly, without warning. Although we're encouraged to live healthy lives, there are no guarantees offered to us by the medical profession.
Smoke three packs of cigarettes a day and you might live until you're hit by a bus at age 95. Eat your greens, never allow toxic substances into your body and keep in shape, and a spot may show up on an X-ray when you're 35.
People in Chip have remarked on a number of cases of cancer in recent years. They've been dismayed by not only the quantity, but the strange types of cancer that are not supposed to routinely show up.
Dr. John O'Connor, the Fort McMurray physician who treats patients in Chip on a regular basis, has raised alarms, too.
That tells most people that something's amiss.
O'Connor, along with most Chip residents, wants the matter probed.
At the recent hearings into Suncor Energy's Voyageur project, a study into the problem by the Alberta Cancer Board was released. The study didn't find an elevated incidence of cancer in Chip.
While doctors have given the institution a clean bill of health when it comes to freedom from influence, many Chip residents do not accept the outcome.
Pointing at the oilsands plants along the Athabasca River, they claim the rate is not only high, they know the cause.
There is no factual background for this conclusion. Not only can no one can say the plants are the cause of something, the fact that there's an elevated risk itself is still unproved.
It's important to listen to the voices of the people. But public policy is based on science.
A decade ago, an exhaustive study was done on the Athabasca River. It found no significant pollutants, but recommended further study.
(We should be aware that oil has leaked into the Athabasca for thousands of years. Mother Nature's gift was revealed to aboriginal people here as it dribbled from the riverbanks.)
It makes sense to study this phenomenon more. It makes sense to involve a wide range of Fort Chipewyan in the study, so they validate and support whatever conclusions are arrived at.
If there's a higher incidence of the dreaded disease, we need to know it. If there's an environmental cause, let it come out.
So far, the chances of this happening are not good.
A meeting in the community to discuss the subject was held behind closed doors on Tuesday. Everyone involved in that consultation -- from the Nunee health board, to federal and provincial officials -- should be ashamed of themselves.
If they're going to explore this issue in secrecy -- going against the trend in society to openness and transparency -- no one will believe their eventual conclusions.
It will be a wasted effort.
A level of distrust on this issue among local residents has built up ever since the cancer board study was released to the oilsands hearing in Fort McMurray, not a town hall forum in Chip.
Meanwhile, more cases of cancer are being diagnosed, and questions multiply.
People in the hamlet not only need their questions answered, they need their fears calmed.
Secrecy will only make a bad situation worse.
© Copyright 2006, Fort McMurray Today.
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