We're paying the price for the pay we live

- June 3, 2006, The Observer
Facing Our Music

“Something strange is happening in a small but highly polluted Canadian community.” The first line of a New Zealand Herald article on March 4, 2006. That community is the Aamjiwnaang First Nation located within the southern boundaries of Sarnia. That something strange is a gender ratio well off balance.
A report published last year in an American journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, released information showing nearly twice the number of girls as boys being born in Aamjiwnaang. The news hit the fan. The story could be found in media from San Francisco to China. And rightfully so. Sarnia is different.
A quick check of provincial air quality readings last week found every city reporting “ozone” as the main pollutant at that time. Every city that is, except Sarnia, which reported fine particulate matter caused mostly by combustion and sulphates (vehicles, coal-fired plants, etc.), and known to be associated with serious illnesses like respiratory problems. As I’m writing this, we are under a Smog Advisory, with Sarnia’s air currently worst in the province, the only city in the “poor” category. Causes for this lie on both sides of the border.
Those countless news stories reported other statistics. Such as one in four Aamjiwnaang children with behavioural or learning disabilities. Asthma is at three times the national average. Fourty percent of women on the reserve have had at least one miscarriage, but many have had several, up to six.
Pause on that for a moment.
The issue has spread into the academic realm too. A fellow student at the University of Waterloo chose to further study Aamjiwnaang’s gender issue for a research thesis. So have students at the University of Western Ontario and Carleton University who are also studying environmental health in Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia. The environmental issues are affecting our reputation.
Of course, there doesn’t have need to be further action on these issues. After all, the study also found a one percent likelihood that the gender ratio is just chance.
But common speculation is that a combination of chemicals including those that act as endocrine disrupters are to blame. These toxins alter the hormones in the endocrine system, and the connection is so strong that they are commonly known as “gender benders”.
Last October, the same month the report was released, a dog which had played in the contaminated Talfourd Creek gave birth to dead and deformed puppies. The Observer reported on the incident and the heavy metal contamination of the Creek. But there is no answer to where the pollution is from and no one who has taken responsibility.
A strong correlation also lies between Sarnia’s environmental problems, and it’s less than perfect image. Many in town would like to improve Sarnia’s reputation by selling ourselves differently, as ‘more than just industry’. Ron Plain, chairperson of the First Nation’s environmental committee recently told The Observer that whenever native people express concern about pollution they are accused of hurting local tourism.
A lot of environmental good is happening in the Sarnia area too. Any new branding of Sarnia should market this, but it must be part of a greater movement for environmental change. We must not ignore the terrible situations that exist. Talfourd Creek is one example and the community, including industry, must get to the bottom of it. Our reputation will only improve if we continually improve. According to Joanna Kulig, a Western student who recently completed a study of environmental health perceptions in Sarnia, “A number of Canadian communities have suffered greatly from serious effects of industrial pollution, oftentimes a result of neglect of individuals, corporations and government to take responsibility and address presented issues.”
Those working to make Sarnia more progressive would like some publicity too. The next article will feature people who truly are greening the valley.
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Darcy Higgins is a native of Sarnia who is currently completing a degree in Environmental Studies. He can be reached by e-mail at darcyhiggins@gmail.com