Government to Be Sued Over West Nile Virus?

Dozens of Canadians afflicted with the West Nile virus will be meeting this month to decide whether or not to launch a class action lawsuit against the Ontario government. A Toronto lawyer says he has as many as 100 clients who want to sue the Ontario government for not presenting all the facts about the risk of the disease. They alleged that public health officials didn’t do enough to protect them from the disease. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports from Toronto:

Transcript

Dozens of Canadians afflicted with the West Nile virus will be meeting this month to decide
whether or not to launch a class action lawsuit against the Ontario government. A Toronto
lawyer says he has as many as one hundred clients who want to sue the Ontario government for
not presenting all the facts about the risk of the disease. They alleged that public health officials
didn’t do enough to protect them from the disease. Dan Karpenchuk reports from Toronto:


Official Ontario government statistics show there were 374 West Nile cases in the province last
year. But health experts say the number was closer to one thousand. And many of those experts
say the Ontario government played down the threat, keeping critical information out of the public
domain.


Dr. Colin D’Cunha is Ontario’s medical officer of health. D’Cunha has said that the growing
alarm has been driven by hype rather than by facts:


“And I have to remind people that the serious signs and symptoms are seen in less than one per
cent of people who come down with West Nile Virus infection. And to put it in context,
remember that the flu kills about nineteen hundred Canadians each year.”


The lawyer who may bring the suit, says most people were led to believe that the virus would
affect only the sick and the elderly, which has not been the case.


National health officials are now warning that the virus will hit earlier and harder than last year,
and spread across the entire country.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk.

Drug-Resistant Bacteria on the Rise

There are again warnings in the United States and Canada about the overuse of antibiotics. Researchers say some strains of bacteria are becoming more resistant to drug therapy. They published their findings in the most recent edition of the journal Nature Medicine. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk has more:

Transcript

There are again warnings in the United States and Canada about the overuse of antibiotics.
Researchers say some strains of bacteria are becoming more resistant to drug therapy. They
published their findings in the most recent edition of the journal Nature Medicine.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk has more:


Medical experts looked at strains of bacteria that cause things like pneumonia, meningitis, and ear
infections. They found that more were becoming resistant to penicillin and erythromycin. They
noted that while strains resistant to only one of the drugs appear to have leveled off in recent
years, strains resistant to both drugs are increasing.


Donald Lowe is chief of microbiology at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. He also has another
warning.


Lowe says, last year, many people, especially in the U.S., stockpiled the antibiotic ciprofloxicin
because of fears of a bio-terrorism attack from anthrax. He says since it was in their medicine
cabinets anyway, many used it to alleviate flu symptoms, believing it would help. But Lowe says
the cipro drugs are not effective against pneumonia.


“If you came into your doctor’s office with symptoms of pneumonia and you had been on cipro
a month, two months ago, that strain already could be resistant and your doctor doesn’t even
know it, puts you on the antibiotic and you fail therapy.”


Lowe and other researchers say it all points to the need for more regulation of antibiotic use and
finding new methods to treat drug-resistant bacteria.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk.

Canadian Endangered Species Law Enacted

Canada now has a national law to protect endangered species. It comes after nine years of study and debate. The new law takes effect early next year. It’s designed to protect more than four hundred species and their critical habitat. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:

Transcript

Canada now has a national law to protect endangered species. It comes after nine years of study
and debate. The new law takes effect early next year (2003). It’s designed to protect more than
four hundred species and their critical habitat. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan
Karpenchuk reports:


Among the species to be protected are the grizzly bear, sage grouse, swift fox, whooping crane,
the humpback whale and the American pine marten, just to name a few.


Canada’s environment minister says the country’s first ever national endangered species law
fulfils the international commitments Canada made under the Biodiversity Convention.


The law provides for assessing which species are at risk and calls for an action plan to save those
species which are found to be most at risk.


Some environmental groups have welcomed the law as a positive first step, and a signal that
Ottawa has finally accepted some of the responsibility for protecting species and their habitats.


But others are critical. Peter Tabuns is with Greenpeace Canada:


“It’s in the end just a public relations gesture. It will not have any substantial effect on species at
risk in Canada. It won’t fulfill Canada’s obligations under the convention on biodiversity. It is
really a lost opportunity.”


Tabuns says he’s also upset that it will be the federal cabinet ministers, not scientists, that decide
whether an animal will be placed on a protected list.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk

More Disease With Climate Change?

A recent report looked at the potential health effects of climate change on people in the Niagara region. The report predicts increased exposure to malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever in coming years. The report was released by the environmental group Pollution Probe, and was done in partnership with the health and environment departments of the Canadian government. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:

Transcript

A recent report says people in the Niagara region expect increased exposure to malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever in coming years because of climate change. The warning is contained in a new report by the environmental group, Pollution Probe. The report was done in partnership with the health and environment departments of the Canadian government. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports from Toronto:


The report says the diseases are projected to spread because climate change favors the northward movement of disease carrying birds, insects and rodents. Quentin Chiotti of Pollution Probe says the sudden spread of the West Nile Virus is an example of what to expect.


“Now though, there’s some uncertainty about predicting just when that will happen, without a
doubt the conditions are going to be ripe for these kinds of disease outbreaks.”


Chiotti says there are already twenty confirmed cases of the West Nile Virus in Canada, compared
to none last year. And more than three thousand in the U.S.


Chiotti also says the number of excessive heat days could double to thirty each summer by the
year 2030. He says that could lead to more deaths – as many as four hundred people each
summer in the region.


Pollution Probe says the predictions show the need to tackle greenhouse gas emissions as soon as
possible.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto.

Chretien Plan Calls for Transport Changes

The government of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien recently outlined a new long-term political agenda. It includes a proposal for major changes to transportation that would affect traffic bottlenecks at crossing points like the Ambassador Bridge. The Bridge is the biggest trading corridor between Canada and the U.S. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:

Transcript

The government of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien recently outlined a new long-
term political agenda. It includes a proposal for major changes to transportation that
would affect traffic bottlenecks at crossing points like the Ambassador Bridge. The
Bridge is the biggest trading corridor between Canada and the U.S. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:


Prime Minister Jean Chretien calls it part of his Kyoto plan, which is intended to reduce
traffic congestion on the main highway link along the north shore of Lake Ontario all the
way to the U.S. border for almost 24 hours a day that highway looks more like a moving
warehouse as goods travel by truck north and south of the border.


But the emissions from thousands of trucks each day are creating smog from Toronto to
Buffalo to Detroit.


Chretien’s plan is to shift more truck traffic to rail and water.


Ken Ogilvie of the environmental organization, Pollution Probe, says it’s a positive step
but it needs more government incentives similar to those in the U.S.


“What the United States is ahead of us on and should and could do a lot more is on the
policy side of tying some of this funding to make sure there is improved rail and transit
systems.”


Ogilvie says further study would be needed to determine whether the plan would simply
shift environmental problems to the Great Lakes and to rail infrastructure on both sides of
the border.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto.

Canada’s Plans to Battle Farm Pollution

Seven people died and more than two thousand were made ill when E. coli bacteria contaminated Walkerton, Ontario’s water supply more than two years ago. The contamination came from cattle manure that had leeched into the ground. Now, the government of Ontario has come out with its plans in an attempt to prevent another tragedy like Walkerton. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:

Transcript

Seven people died and more than two thousand were made ill when E. coli bacteria
contaminated Walkerton, Ontario’s water supply more than two years ago. The contamination came from cattle manure that had leeched into the ground. Now, the government of Ontario has come out with its plans in an attempt to prevent another tragedy like Walkerton. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:


Ontario is considering two new laws to make its drinking water safer. The new regulations would affect everything from manure-spreading to barn construction.


The first, the Nutrient Management Act, would bind all farmers by the same curbs
on agricultural waste that contributed to the contamination of Walkerton’s water
supply.


The second, the Safe Drinking Water Act, would enshrine in law the right of people
in Ontario to clean and safe drinking water. It would also establish a water council to
conduct research, advise the government and set up a registry so consumers could
check the water quality in their area.


Paul Muldoon is with the Canadian Environmental Law Association. He says it’s too
early yet to say if the new rules go far enough..


“Our view is that we’re hopeful it’s going to do the right thing and we’re going to do anything in our power to point it in the right direction, once we see the details.”


There will likely be some opposition from farmers to the new rules. But they and the
municipalities will be given a chance to voice their concerns during public meetings
across Ontario this fall.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk.

Canada Debates Revival of Nuclear Power

At a recent meeting in Detroit, the G-8 energy ministers were looking for alternatives to non-renewable resources such as oil and gas. Nuclear energy was high on that list of alternatives. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, at least, renewing the drive towards nuclear power is becoming too costly:

Transcript

At a recent meeting in Detroit, the G-8 energy ministers were looking for alternatives to non-renewable resources such as oil and gas. High among those alternatives was emphasis on nuclear energy. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, at least, renewing the drive towards nuclear power is becoming too costly:


The nuclear power plant at Pickering, on the shores of Lake Ontario, holds some of the oldest reactors in North America. Environmentalists have long argued that the 30-year-old reactors in the Pickering power plant should be mothballed. But a couple of years ago, Ontario Power Generation said it would completely overhaul the reactors, estimating a cost of about one billion dollars Canadian.


But the costs, complexity, and time it would take to do the work turned out to be more than anyone expected. The scheduled re-opening has now been twice delayed …and the cost of doing the work has already soared to more than two billion dollars.


While environmentalists in the Great Lakes region may take heart at the delays and the increased
costs, the Ontario government is sticking with it.


Senior officials at the plant say no matter what the costs, re-furbishing is by far the best option for the province. They say even carrying the two billion dollar price tag, it would be competitive with other energy sources such as gas and oil. And, in that context, they say, it still makes commercial sense.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk.

Tainted Water Inquiry Calls for Major Changes

Recommendations have been made in the second and final report of an inquiry into the tainted water tragedy in Walkerton, Ontario. Seven people died and 2,300 became sick two years ago when E. coli bacteria leeched into the town’s drinking water supply from a nearby dairy farm. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:

Transcript

Recommendations have been made in the second and final report of
an inquiry into the tainted water tragedy in Walkerton, Ontario. Seven people died and 2,300 became sick two years ago when E. coli bacteria leeched into the town’s drinking water supply from a nearby dairy farm. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:


In his first report three months ago, the head of the Walkerton inquiry, Associate Chief Justice Dennis O’Connor, outlined what went
wrong and who was to blame. In his final report, O’Connor makes 93 recommendations aimed at preventing another tragedy like Walkerton. He provides a blue print for fixing the province’s water systems. That includes having the province spend 800-million dollars immediately to upgrade water systems, and beef up programs and policies designed for water protection. He says there should be a safe drinking water act, a separate drinking water branch as well as a watershed management branch both to be created within the environment ministry. And there must be tougher enforcement of water regulations for farms and municipalities.
Without that, O’Connor says the threats to safe water in the Great Lakes region will grow. If the recommendations are implemented, many people will be able to rest easier knowing that Ontario could be working on improved watershed protection. But that may be wishful thinking. Already the Ontario government is taking a “go slow” approach, mainly because of the money it might have to spend… almost four times as much as the environment ministry’s current budget. The next step, it says, is consultations with communities across the province.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk.

Nuclear Waste to Set Sail on Great Lakes?

A proposal under consideration by the Bush Administration to ship nuclear waste across one of the Great Lakes is getting a cool response north of the border. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports, Canadian officials say they know nothing of the plan:

Transcript

A proposal under consideration by the Bush Administration to ship nuclear waste across one of the Great Lakes, is getting a cool response north of the border. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports — Canadian officials say they know nothing of the plan:


According
to reports from Washington, the U.S. wants to ship thousands of tons of radioactive waste by barge across Lake Michigan. Since Lake Michigan lies entirely within U.S. territory, Washington is not forced to tell Ottawa about the planned shipments. But since the shipments would cross one of the Great Lakes, there are concerns. One Canadian politician in Windsor, Ontario, says there are plans for thousands of shipments and that could result in dozens of accidents to a region that supplies drinking water to 30 million people on both sides of the border.


Many politicians and environmentalists in the U.S.
and Canada say the plan is too dangerous. And the International Joint
Commission, an agency run jointly by the U.S. and Canadian governments to
oversee the Great Lakes, says Lake Michigan is part of a single ecosystem
common to both countries. If Congress approves the plan this summer, the
first barge loaded with nuclear waste will cast off in 2010.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk.

Critics Say Clean-Up Money Not Enough

As U.S. states look for more money to clean up the Great Lakes, the province of Ontario, has come up with some, albeit not a lot. Ontario announced that it will spend about $35 million to clean up the Great Lakes over the next five years. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk has more:

Transcript

As U.S. states look for more money to clean up the Great Lakes, the province of Ontario has come up with some, albeit not a lot. Ontario announced that it will spend about 35 million dollars, U.S., to clean up the Great Lakes over the next five years. Dan Karpenchuk reports:

Ontario’s environment minister, Elizabeth Witmer, says the money will be spent in several areas, including the clean up of contaminated sediment at seventeen sites on the Ontario side of the Great Lakes. She says the goal is to make the Lakes swimmable again.

Witmer says there will also be more monitoring and reporting of water quality, and the health of fish and wildlife in and around the Great Lakes region will be studied, but it’s not the first time that the province has pledged a huge clean up of its share of the world’s largest body of fresh water. More than half of the seventeen sites targeted by Witmer were supposed to have been cleaned up by the year 2000. So far only one has been cleaned up, and work is underway on only one more.

Opposition politicians and environmentalists call the plan a pathetic effort, and say the amount of money pledged isn’t nearly enough. They say it could be used up just by the city of Toronto in one day.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk.