AbitibiBowater's gas release causes suffering for neighbours
Jun 24, 2009 | In Health & Safety | 2 feedbacks »
On Sunday the AbitibiBowater pulp mill in Thunder Bay, Ontario released a gas that was so foul smelling a woman living nearby said the fumes left her eyes and throat burning, and said her family continues to suffer nausea and breathing problems. Kathy McGowan said that even her dog was showing signs of serious discomfort.
AbitibiBowater and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment are offering their assurance that the emission was non-toxic and the public was not put at risk.
AbitibiBowater's spokesperson, Jean Phillippe Cote, has verified that the mill released a "non-condensable gas" around 7am on Sunday. Cote said that while the gas smelled bad, it had no harmful affect on nearby neighbours.
The Ministry of the Environment's spokesperson, Lisa Brigadyr, said that while exposure to the gas can cause nausea, headaches and other minor problems, it has no long-term effect. Brigadyr said that the hot humid weather conditions did not allow the gas to disperse as quickly as it normally would.
Source:
Mill gas leaves residents fuming (TB News Watch)
Mill gas leak sparks action (Chronicle Journal)
2 comments
Senior management care? Not at all. Dr Laura, Side show Bob. They all have a/c in offices. Far from the poison.
They stick their heads in the sand. And tell the media and community how safe this death trap is. Just ask the 3 guys that died there a few years back. Bang up job Pat. Safe my ass. Ya Rick, your a real class act as well. You could not manage a kool-aid stand let alone a mill.
Funny though... within 3 years of that occurance (& 3 more gassing events) our mill actually installed procedures to 1) eliminate this from happening & 2) installed so2 monitors & aloarms so that we would know about it... now!... when we get into the ppm arguement & the number of times you have been eposed & the number of minutes you have actually spent breathing this junk over your carrier... well then we run into a few disagreements!
7 this is not even mentioning the dust that is hauled into our lungs on a daily basis... containing, god knows what! & the response is?... yep! u guessed it... "Oh .. There is NO dust up there, we tested it!" ...
Yeah! & i have a bridge i want to sell you!.....
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