ÿþ<img src='smalllogo.gif' alt='Logo' /><br/><h1>Climate Change and Cancer</h1><font size="4" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#709420"><b>Climate Change and Cancer - Making the Link </b></font> <!-- #EndEditable --><!-- #BeginEditable "content" --> <p>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a target="_blank" href="/UserFiles/File/powerPoints/carcinogens/carcinogens.htm"><font size="+1">Click here</font></a> for a web presentation on Carcinogens, <br/> or <a target="_blank" href="/UserFiles/File/PowerPoints/Carcinogens-art.ppt">download</a> a powerpoint version for your own use.</b></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">LEAS has been working closely with the Canadian Auto Workers Union which launched a major Prevent Cancer Campaign in December 1997 as a result of people dying from exposures to workplace carcinogens. </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The CAW has been meeting with employers to plan strategies regarding how to <b>analyse workplace substances</b> to determine <b>whether they contain carcinogens </b>and how to eliminate them. CAW health and safety committees have been involved in eliminating carcinogens in workplaces such as <b>crumbling asbestos insulation in airports, carcinogenic computer screen cleaners, and replacing diesel driven equipment with electrical equipment in underground mines</b>. </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In auto plants the union has been instrumental in eliminating carcinogenic solvents and metal cleaners such as methylene chloride and trichloroethylene with safer substitutes and processes. In the recently concluded 1999-2002 collective agreement with the Ford Motor Company, the CAW succeeded in prohibiting the introduction of 14 hazardous substances, most of them carcinogens. The National CAW met with government officials from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Labour, and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board to impress upon them the importance of taking effective legislative, regulatory and policy action to prevent cancer and to compensate those who unfortunately have contracted cancer as a result of their work. </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Cancer, a relatively uncommon disease in the early years of the 1900&rsquo;s has now become the second leading cause of death in Canada.</b> Many researchers and medical professionals believe that it will overtake heart disease and become the leading cause of death in the 21st century. In just over 60 years the percentage of deaths, caused by cancer has tripled from the 10-12 percent range to current rates that hover around 30 percent. In 1991 more than one in every four deaths in Canada was caused by cancer. The rate is now estimated to be closer to one in three deaths. </font></p> <p><font size="+2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#689018">Recommendation:</font><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> LEAS recognizes that <b>a serious repercussion of poor air quality is an increase in cancer rates</b>. This important link must be made and <b>we urge the federal government to look at Clean Air Strategies as a form of cancer prevention on the community level</b>. This involves research and development in alternative fuels and of transportation policies.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br/> <b><font size="+2">Lower sulphur fuel releases fewer air pollutants than regular fuel.</font></b></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In 2001, the Greater Vancouver Regional District made the decision to have diesel switched from #1 grade to a lower grade #2 diesel that contains twice as much sulphur content. As a result of this policy, transit buses are being recalibrated to use #2 diesel in the B.C. Lower Mainland. </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">While the GVRD would like to say that it is a cost savings issue, we would argue that since there is increased air pollution from a heavier diesel fuel there is a (hidden) cost issue related to increased smog and cancer rates. At the same time, there is a private R &amp; D company in Burnaby called Westport Cummings that is in the process of developing a fuel system that would use primarily natural gas with a secondary ability to use diesel when required. This should be encouraged rather than going in the opposite direction and using a diesel fuel that is detrimental to both health and the environment.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We understand that Canada made a commitment by 2006 to meet California emission standards and that the California Air Resources Board identified that diesel particulate emissions is a toxic air contaminant that causes lung cancer. </font></p> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font size="+2" color="#689018">Recommendation</font></b><font size="+2" color="#689018">: </font>LEAS recommends that <b>the federal government allocate resources to develop a plan of monitoring. and incentives that set a phase-in time line to use cleaner (not dirtier less healthy) fuel</b>. The decision by public transit to use lower grade diesel can have a serious impact in the market as these types of purchasing policies create the conditions for the big gas companies to continue to manufacture and sell lower grade diesel fuel. </font></p><br/><br/><small>http://leas.ca/Climate-Change-and-Cancer.htm <br/>Updated: October 13, 2005</small>