cancer and our kids

My Wife and I were talking the other day about the rapid increase in child cancer cases. When we were kids it was almost unheard of. In the same week a news report came out about one of my favourite animals. Beluga whales are dying at a record rate. Beluga whales in the St. Lawrence sea way are dying from cancer. Beluga whales live entirely in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. There are approximately 70,000 worldwide and about 650 of these live in a small region of the St Lawrence Estuary in Quebec. Between 1983 and 1999, 263 dead whales were reported. Daniel Martineau of the University of Montreal and his team were able to conduct 100 autopsies. He found that cancer, particularly cancer of the digestive tract, was the cause of  death of 18 per cent of juvenile belugas and 27 per cent of the adults. 



The Chemical found in the amazing mammals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), came from the aluminum plant dumping manufacturing waste water into the river. To their credit they have reduced the toxic outflow by 80%. The scary fact about this story is just that. Most of the great lakes have been used as a dumping ground for toxic waste since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Millions of people from Montreal, Toronto, Detroit and Buffalo drink water from the St.Lawrence and great lakes. The water is treated with chemicals to remove organic bacteria but does nothing to remove the fine molecules of toxic to chemicals. Cancer is a world wide epidemic, one cause continues to point to our use of chemicals and the way we dispose of them. PAH's can be found in everything from packaging, cosmetics, car exhaust, asphalt and many sources of drinking water. One more reason to love Victoria and the Sooke water basin.