Dr. Pedro Antunes, a scientist and Canada Research Chair based at Algoma University, has published a 20-minute video presentation entitled Building a Ferrochrome Smelter in Sault Ste. Marie – Potential Emissions and Impacts.
Among the key points he makes is that chromium 6, which ferrochrome smelting can produce, is carcinogenic and can directly interact with DNA even at low levels of exposure through inhalation.
Sault Ste. Marie already has an elevated cancer rate. A 2019 paper published in the journal Cancer showed that Sault Ste. Marie has a significantly higher rate of acute myeloid leukemia than the rest of Canada, and the P6C area code around Algoma Steel has more than double the rate of the rest of Canada. And a 2018 Cancer Care Ontario study showed that Algoma has the highest age-standardized rate of cancer in Ontario.
Noront Resources, the company that wishes to build a ferrochrome smelter in Sault Ste. Marie, says the smelter will have the latest technology and that cutting edge technology in other places has no significant emissions or impacts.
However, Dr. Antunes searched for scientific evidence of ferrochrome smelting operations that have no significant emissions or impacts and found none. In fact, existing smelting operations produce chromium in various forms, such as dust, slag, sludge, and contaminated water.
Ontario has a history of limited enforcement of environmental laws, so it’s important to keep in mind that the system that’s supposed to protect us from industrial pollution through monitoring and enforcement often does not.
As a result, Dr. Antunes recommends that since the smelter proposed for Sault Ste. Marie will be novel in many ways, a prototype must be vetted through the scientific process to ensure no risk to people or the environment. If this is not possible, then he recommends that the smelter be built away from any population centre.
Many of Sault Ste. Marie’s physicians have echoed Dr. Antunes’ findings, as evidenced by a letter signed by more than 50 of them, sent to local media earlier in October.
Clean North encourages all citizens of Sault Ste. Marie and the surrounding area to watch Dr. Antunes’ presentation (available on Youtube) and learn more about what’s known about the science behind ferrochrome smelting and pollution.
Dr, Antunes is an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in invasive species biology at Algoma University, an adjunct professor in Biology Department at Wilfrid Laurier University, an adjunct professor at the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph, and an Advisory Board member of the Invasive Species Centre.
