Contaminated dust in many local homes

The issue of indoor dust contaminated with heavy metals in the Greater Sudbury area needs further study, according to an expert on the issue.

Inka Milewski, senior adviser and director of Health Watch Conservation Council in New Brunswick, who specializes in heavy metal contamination and cancer rates, recently completed an examination of the 2008 Sudbury Soils Study.

She was asked to do so by the Sudbury Community Committee for Human and Environmental Health.

The local grassroots group was looking to make recommendations on the issue of indoor heavy metal contamination, and asked for Milewski's opinion.

The Sudbury Soils Study tested indoor dust in 91 homes in five communities of interest — Coniston, Copper Cliff, Falconbridge, Hanmer and Gatchell. Researchers also tested five local elementary schools.

The study concluded that the concentration of the contaminants of concern in indoor dust were 2.8 to 5.9 times higher than the concentrations in outdoor soil.

Falconbridge had the highest mean indoor dust concentration of nickel, and Copper Cliff had the highest mean indoor dust concentration of lead.

Milewski said she thinks it's fair to say the primary source of this contaminated dust is local industries.

“Of course we should be concerned,” she said. “Nickel is a carcinogen.”

She makes six recommendations in her report. They are:
-Indoor air quality testing in homes and schools in the four at-risk communities (Copper Cliff, Falconbridge, Coniston and Gatchell).
-Establishing nickel, lead and other heavy metal standards for indoor dust and applying them to residences in the four at-risk communities.
-Examining the blood lead levels in children in the four at-risk areas and a suitable control or reference areas outside of the Greater Sudbury area.
-Assessing nickel sensitization and allergic dermatitis in children, specifically in the four at-risk areas and an appropriate control/reference area.
-Determining the incidence of cancers known to be associated with nickel, lead and arsenic exposure specifically in the four at-risk areas, as well as an appropriate control/reference area.
-Determining the incidence of dementia, cognitive impairment and Parkinson's disease among older adults specifically in the four at-risk areas as well as a reference/control area.
 

Of course we should be concerned. Nickel is a carcinogen.

Inka Milewski,
author of report about contamination levels of dust in local homes

Milewski said there's currently no government standards for heavy metal contamination of indoor dust.

“There is no threshold where if you find nickel in dust above a certain level, there needs to be an immediate cleanup or remediation of that,” she said.

She recommends the ministries of Environment and Health should push for such standards to be established.

The health studies she's recommending should be undertaken by the environment and health ministries, along with the Sudbury and District Health Unit, Milewski said.

The original Sudbury Soils Study wasn't as effective as it could have been because it studied health statistics from the entire region covered by the Sudbury and District Health Unit, including Greater Sudbury and Manitoulin, she said.

That means it failed to identify areas where people's health is worse, Milewski said.

This is the reason health studies should be conducted in communities which seem to be more affected by indoor dust contamination, she said.

“You need to do a health risk assessment at the appropriate geographic scale,” she said.

“There's no point in looking at cancer rates for the entire health region where Sudbury is located, and so those cancer rates are somehow applied to the people living in the western part of the City of Sudbury area.”

She said it's actually easy to get rid of contaminated indoor nickel dust simply by making sure people don't let it accumulate in their homes. However, they need to be aware that there's an issue first, Milewski said.

Homer Seguin, a member of the Sudbury Community Committee for Human and Environmental Health, said his group was “alarmed” by the Sudbury Soils Study's indoor dust testing results, but wanted to consult an expert.

He said the Sudbury Soils Study hadn't really come to any firm conclusions about the issue.

“They sort of left it out in the air as something that needs to be followed up,” Seguin said. “They sort of made a semi-conclusion that they didn't think that this was posing a health problem. They didn't really put any proof about that.”

He said his group supports all of Milewski's recommendations, but is especially emphasizing the need for nickel standards for indoor dust and determining the incidence of cancers in the four identified communities.

Seguin said it's a “bloody shame” there's no laws surrounding heavy metal contamination of indoor dust.

“There's a law for the soil, there's a law for the air, but the minute you walk across the trestle of your door into your home, there is no law protecting you against the same substances.”

Greater Sudbury is “the worst place in Ontario for cancers,” Seguin said.

He said he'd like to find out if these cancers are related to contaminated indoor dust, and rates are higher in the four communities in the city with higher levels of contamination.