High disease rate found in town near B.C. Teck smelter

[Igor_Passau]

U.S. study has found an unusually high incidence of gastrointestinal disease in a small U.S. town located downstream from a Teck smelter in Trail, B.C.

Northport, Wash., is a small community of 300 people, located 35 kilometres downstream from Teck’s Trail operations — one of the biggest lead and zinc smelters in the world.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have now confirmed Northport residents have 10 to 15 times the normal rate of diseases such as colitis and Crohn’s disease, which have symptoms including abdominal pain and diarrhea.

Teck’s Trail smelter is one of the biggest lead and zinc smelters in the world. (Trail Daily Times/Canadian Press)"It’s a relief to have someone in a knowledgeable situation say something is going on here that is not normal," says Northport resident Joe Wickman.

The Harvard study has ruled out a genetic connection, as few of the Northport victims are related.

Researchers are now seeking funding to establish whether environmental toxins are behind the high rate of Crohn’s disease and colitis.

Teck says it has spent millions of dollars reducing pollution from its Trail smelter, and there is no established link between environmental factors and disease rates for Crohn’s and colitis.

"We need to find out what is really going and we need to have clear answers here," says company spokesperson Dave Godlewski.

For generations, locals have complained they've been sickened by pollution from the smelter across the border.

Jamie Paparich, whose father and aunt had Crohn's disease, has lobbied the medical community to get involved for years.

"When I stumbled upon all the records and research about Teck, and learned all the years and decades of pollution they had put into the river and air, it just became so obvious that this was the common denominator this was the link," says Paparich.

He now wants action from Teck.

"They can stop maybe shuffling their feet on some of this and go forward on areas they know they can make a difference now,” Paparich said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/08/14/bc-northport-disease-teck.html?cmp=rss

 

[Twiggy930]

Heard this on the radio the other day but didn't catch the whole story. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Igor_Passau]

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/...el+disease+Washington+town/7096684/story.html

 

[kiny]

update below

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2012/295.html

They should check any biopsies they have from those people for heavy metals.

 

[Mark in Seattle]

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/feb/06/inflammation-found-in-sturgeon/


February 6, 2011 in CityInflammation found in sturgeon
By Becky Kramer The Spokesman-Review PrintEmail


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Tags:Crohn’s diseaseJamie Paprichnorthportpublic healthTeck Resources Ltd.Trail smelterulcerative colitisRelated stories

Study tracks reasons behind high rate of illness near NorthportFebruary 6, 2011

Juvenile sturgeon that ingested slag from Teck Resources’ Trail, B.C., smelter had chronic inflammation in their guts, according to a federal study.

Thirty-seven juvenile sturgeon were captured in the upper part of Lake Roosevelt in October 2008. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey examined their digestive tracts to see what they were eating. Slag was present in 76 percent of the sturgeons’ guts.

Analysis of the gut tissues showed the presence of chronic inflammation. Bigger fish had more inflammation, suggesting a long-term exposure to one or more stress factors, the study said. However, additional research is needed to determine if physical or chemical properties from the slag contributed to the chronic inflammation, the scientists said.

Slag is a byproduct of the smelting process, which extracts metals from ore. Teck stopped discharging slag into the Columbia River in 1995. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the smelter dumped at least 23 million tons of slag into the Columbia over the past century.

Slag contains 25 different compounds, including iron, zinc, aluminum, manganese, copper, chromium, cobalt, arsenic, nickel, lead, cadmium, silver and mercury.

Becky Kramer

 

[Mark in Seattle]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokane_River

This story from Trail makes me think about where I grew up.


This is where I grew up - on the Spokane River, about a mile downriver from the sewage treatment plant. As a kid I used to swim in this river in spite of its greenish brown color. If heavy metals/pcb's cause IBD, then perhaps this is the cause of my particular case of CD. Not too many people swim in this river. There used to be a bridge that some of us as kids enjoyed jumping off of into the river and then swimming to shore. Aside from jumping off the bridge nobody ever went to the river to swim.

I was dx'd with CD probably a couple years after I used to jump off the bridge.



SNIP

PollutionThe Spokane River contains some of the highest concentrations of heavy metals of any river in the state, resulting from pollution coming from Lake Coeur D'Alene and traveling from the Bunker Hill Mine and Smelting Complex Superfund Site.[13][14]

Spokane's sewage treatment facilities empty their outflow into the Spokane River. In 1889, Spokane built a sewage system that dumped raw sewage directly into the river, which was visibly noticeable by 1920. In 1957 a primary treatment facility was installed; however, this was soon deemed inadequate by the Washington State Department of Ecology. This led to the construction of a more advanced treatment plant that utilized chemical precipitation technology, which was connected in 1975, and operational by 1977.[15]

[edit] Fish habitat
Long Lake Dam on the Spokane River, the construction of which wiped out the salmon populations that used to travel upstreamAfter the Northern Pacific Railway lines arrived in Spokane in 1882, there was rapid growth in milling operations along the river. Many of these mills required dams to provide power for their machinery. As a result of the dams blocking the river, salmon populations in the Spokane plummeted, leading to complaints from many of the people living upstream.[16] After the construction of Long Lake Dam in 1915 by Washington Water Power blocked upstream passage, the river's salmon populations disappeared completely.[17]

Steelhead were also abundant on the Spokane River, prior to pollution and the construction of the dams. Today, the Spokane River system is one of the two largest unoccupied stretches of steelhead habitat within their former range.[18]

Today, the Spokane River supports populations of rainbow trout, northern pikeminnow, and Bridgelip Suckers (Catostomus columbianus), as well as several non-native species.[17] Many of the remaining fish, however, are not suitable for human consumption due to the chemical pollution in the river, with signs alongside the river warning that the fish are contaminated with PCBs.[19]

SNIP

 

[M30]

I have not read all this but I did a ton of research based on the original post and article.

I would just like to state that in looking, I would like to point attention to the paper and pulp factories along that same river, which are even more close to the city with the increased Crohn's population.

I happen to grow up near the worst Paper & Pulp Offender (according to the EPA in 2002).

When I read the article, I looked for similarities between the B.C. plant mentioned and the paper mill I grew up near - and found very little. I did, however, find a large paper and pulp factor closer to the Crohn's patients used in the statistic.

At present, I think there is a good chance dioxins (tdcc) released from these mills, in combination with some genetic anomalies some of us have, are linked to Crohn's disease.

 

[kiny]

Rates of crohn's disease are extremely high in Canada in general, I think one of the highest in the world if not the highest. Don't know if there's a map showing a North-South gradient in the US, It is sort of like that in Europe, but there's a few countries that are exceptions.

 

[M30]

Does Canada have a map for Crohn's occurences?

I've used google trends but it's not a great source..
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=crohn's&geo=CA