EDMONTON - Alberta's toxics watchdog is cautioning that a plan to test for chemicals in the blood of 30,000 women and children shouldn't be allowed to distract from the larger issue of industrial pollution in the province's roaring resource-based economy.
"What I hope I don't see is diverting concern about pollutants in our environment away from industrial concerns toward lifestyle concerns," Myles Kitagawa, associate director of the Toxics Watch Society of Alberta, said Monday.
Kitagawa said pollutants from coal-fired plants and oilsands upgraders may not fit into the study, but still have an impact on human health.
The province's Health Department has called on experts from the universities of Alberta and Calgary to study the blood collected from 30,000 pregnant women at doctors' offices.
They experts will look for industrial contaminants along with those found in everyday household products. The results are expected to be released in the fall.
"Because they're pooling the blood in different categories they will be able to get a cross-section of the province to know where the impact of some of the chemicals may be on some individuals," said Health Department spokeswoman Shannon Haggarty.
"It's a provincewide scan to see what chemicals are floating around out there that may have an impact on human health."
Kitagawa said he is pleased that the blood of pregnant women will be checked because toxins can have a particularly harmful effect on them.
"Our body mistakes some of these chemicals for hormones and the developing fetus relies on hormone triggers at certain stages of its development.
"So if the mother has chemicals in her blood that can be mistaken for hormones, it can interfere with the proper development of the fetus."
He said another problem is many toxins are stored in fatty tissues and can show up later in breast milk.
Haggarty said the tests only include pregnant women and children because they make up a sound sample size and their blood is easy to obtain.
Kitagawa said the sample size is workable because it focuses on groups most at risk.
"If I was going to expand it, I may expand it to First Nations because of their reliance on fish and wild game," he said.
"My hypothesis would be they're receiving a higher exposure to persistent biocumulative chemicals than other demographic groups."
The province is already taking some steps to reduce industrial pollutants. It is also studying a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by pumping and storing carbon dioxide waste underground using a pipeline network.
Premier Ed Stelmach's government has also tabled legislation to force large-scale producers to cut the intensity of such emmissions by 12 per cent starting July 1.
Alberta produces almost 40 per cent of Canada's greenhouse gases.
