On World Asthma Day, Official Opposition calls for better air quality monitoring
Edmonton – Laurie Blakeman, Alberta Liberal environment critic, says that Alberta needs a provincially funded and operated air monitoring system as a first step toward cleaning up the province’s air quality – and therefore improving the health of Albertans.
According to the most recently available statistics, Alberta has the highest asthma rate in the nation.
“Asthma affects thousands of Albertans and costs the health system between $135-$149 million every year,” Blakeman says. “Every sixteen minutes, an Albertan winds up in one of our emergency rooms because of an asthma attack. Many, many of these cases are vulnerable children. We need to clean up our air, and an accurate monitoring system is the place to start.”
The most recent air monitoring plan recommended to government would cost $11 million over four years and provide one air monitoring station in every population centre in Alberta with a population of over 20,000. Portable monitors would periodically assess air quality in smaller communities. The government has ignored this plan.
Blakeman also believes Alberta must adopt the National Air Quality Health Index, which provides more accurate and more comprehensive measures of the health impacts of toxins in the atmosphere. Currently, for example, sour gas levels are not even publically available for locations such as Mildred Lake. Alberta is the only province that hasn’t adopted the Index, which allows citizens to quickly check air quality (measured on a scale of 1-10) on TV before they go outside. This is especially important for asthmatics.
“It’s wrong that Albertans should be the only Canadians not to benefit from the federal air monitoring system,” Blakeman says.
Cleaning up Alberta’s air must include air monitoring, but it can’t stop there. “Monitoring means nothing unless the government enforces its own emissions standards,” Blakeman says. “Polluters that break the law should face the consequences.”
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