Aluminum smelters
On Belugas and Cancer
Belugas, like canaries in a coal mine, speak to a particular poison spewed
by aluminum smelters. In Quebec, where the Saint Lawrence River meets the
North Atlantic’s frigid Labrador Current, upstream industry is devastating
a population of these small white whales. Pollution is the greatest threat
to the St. Lawrence beluga population, whose numbers dropped from 5,000 to
about 650 in the past century.
Alcan is a dominant industrial force in Quebec. It has installed a network
of dams in the Lac-Saint-Jean/Saguenay River region, with a combined
capacity of 2,687 megawatts, to fuel nearby smelters with a combined
capacity of 700,000 tons per year. (www.alcan.ca)
These smelters, like all that burn coal tar, emit chemicals called
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In these plants, coal tar pitch
and petroleum coke are combined and baked to make anodes and cathodes for
smelting aluminum. Anode forming, baking and rodding, potlining and pot
starting activities all release toxic emissions from coal tar.
Veterinary pathologists from the University of Montreal have fingered PAHs
discharged from the upstream aluminum smelters as a contributor to a cancer
epidemic among the belugas.
According to these researchers, one out of five adults belugas suffer from
cancer, comparable to the 23% cancer rate among humans in the western
world. “Such a high percentage had never been observed in any wild animal
species, terrestrial or aquatic (with the important exception of fish). To
our knowledge, this is the first population of wild mammals that can be
compared to humans in this regard,” University of Montreal researcher
Daniel Martineau observes in the website “Diseases and Causes of Death of
Beluga from The St. Lawrence Estruary, Quebec, Canada.”
(www.medvet.umontreal.ca/services/beluga/beluga_homepage.html)
Some cancers in belugas have been fuelled by other toxic substances,
particularly PCBs and the pesticides Mirex and DDT. But researchers have
also found high levels of PAHs in the whales’ tissues.
Dr. Lee Shugart of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee, USA)
examined brain tissue from three dead whales and found the PAH compound
benzo-a-pyrene. The observed concentrations of this carcinogen in the
tissue, he concluded, “would produce cancer in other laboratory animals
under similar conditions.” (“Research: St. Lawrence River Belugas,” The
Scientist 14[19]: 19, Oct. 2, 2000)
Dr. Martineau surmises that the belugas’ diet transports PAHs from the
sediment to their tissues. “Invertebrates living in sediments contaminated
by PAH accumulate these compounds.. In summer, beluga are known to feed in
significant amounts on bottom invertebrates,” he writes. The pathologist
surmises that this exposure could be the reason why he has observed seven
cases of rare small intestine cancer among the population of 650 belugas
since 1983.
According to Dr. Martineau, extraordinary levels of up to 4,500 parts per
billion of total PAH has been found in the sediment of the Saguenay River,
which is part of the belugas’ habitat. The PAH originates “for the most
part from the aluminum factories located upstream.”
Around the beluga’s habitat lie Alcan’s 206,000 ton smelter in Laterriere,
232,000 ton smelter in Jonquiere, 415,000 ton smelter in Baie Comeau, and
its new 385,000 ton smelter in Alma. Throughout the Lac-Saint-Jean/Saguenay
region, humans also suffer from unusually high cancers. According to a
Canadian government survey, the region leads the county in rates of birth
defects. It also leads the province of Quebec in deaths caused by caused by
cardiovascular and cerbrovascular diseases and malignant tumors, according
to a separate study by the Quebec Department of Health (The Scientist)
A study of Jonquierre smelter workers in the late 1970s found that 73
workers had bladder cancer, 60 percent more than was statistically likely.
The number of workers with bladder cancer rose to 130 by 1990. (ibid).
Similar horrors have visited workers at an Alcan smelter on the other side
of Canada, in the province of British Columbia. Here, in Kitimat, Alcan
operates a 279,000 ton smelter.
In October 1989, NCI Cancer Weekly reported that “Alcan… says a study has
shown that workers at its Kitimat aluminum smelter in northwestern British
Columbia have had a slightly higher risk of bladder cancer.” (“Bladder
cancer risk noted; Canada,” NCI Cancer Weekly, Oct. 9, 1989)
Between 1986 and 1995, the Canadian Board of Occupational Health ruled that
23 workers were disabled by or died from cancers created by on-site
exposures. Tar fumes, pitch/coke dust, PAHs and other materials caused
mesothelioma, skin cancer, bladder cancer, and lung cancer in millwrights,
potroom workers, poliners, and other operators and servicemen. (Canadian
Auto Workers Local 2301-Kitimat Smelter and Kemano Power Operaions Workers,
“WCB cancer registry data,” on www.sno.net/caw2301/april98data.htm)
Medical scientists at the University of Montreal, analyzed workers health
records at Alcan’s Arvida Works in Jonquierre, Quebec. In a study published
in March 1995, the doctors confirmed the “relationship between exposure to
coal tar pitch volatiles and bladder cancer among primary aluminum
production workers.” (Tremblay C, Armstrong B, Theriault G, Brodeur J,
Departement de medecine du travail et hygiene du milieu, Universite de
Montreal, “Estimation of risk of developing bladder cancer among workers
exposed to coal tar pitch volatiles in the primary aluminum industry,”
American Journal of Industrial Medicine, March 1995 (27(3):335-48.)
Despite the long known correlation between coal tar pitch exposure to
cancer in workers, it was not until December 1999 that Alcoa warned 3,000
workers at its Australia smelters about the danger. The company also
ordered new measures at its smelters worldwide to reduce coal tar exposure.
“The letter did not explain why the company had waited five years before
informing workers of the results of the 1995 study of Alcan employees at
the Arvida smelter in Quebec,” noted Margeret Rees of Australia. (Margaret
Rees, “Alcoa Australia admits cancer dangers,” World Socialist Web Site,
January 15, 2000.)
In fact, according to an article in the Herald Sun of Australia, Alcoa knew
of potential cancer risks in its Portland and Point Henry smelters since at
least 1989. “A medical specialist at Melbourne’s respected Peter MacCallum
cancer hospital sounded alarm bells over potential cancer and chronic
asthma dangers in 1989. Cancer expert Dr. Cyril Minty warned pot room and
other workers at the Portland and Point Henry smelters could develop the
diseases if they continued to work in the same conditions for a long time.”
When the newspaper reported the doctor’s warning, Alcoa demanded a printed
retraction and said that it “emphatically rejects” any cancer risk among
smelter workers. (Karen Collier and Mark Dunn, “10 years of warnings,”
Herald Sun, Dec. 16, 1999)
Alcoa sent similar warnings to thousands of its current and former
employees worldwide. Recent studies, said Alcoa spokesman David Neurohr,
found “a small increase in cancer could be expected at lower levels of
exposure than had previously been expected… We are just being responsible
in keeping our employees informed.” (“Alcoa health warning,” Mining
Journal, Dec. 17, 1999; “Alcoa warns employees of possible cancer risk,”
Chicago Tribune, Dec. 20, 1999)
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