BROKE supporters outside the NEB to deliver a message on behalf of children who are endangered by the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansio
Join with other BROKE supporters outside the NEB office at 800 Burrard St., Vancouver at 12:15 pm Feb. 13, to deliver a message on behalf of children who are endangered by the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion. We will deliver Valentine’s Day cards to the NEB Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project Panel, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale, Minister of Natural Resources Amarjeet Sohi and a number of Liberal MPs in Burnaby, North Vancouver and Vancouver.
The cards depict a broken planet resulting in broken-hearted children.
RSVP & SHARE event on Facebook HERE
The cards also include links to two reports commissioned by BROKE & NSNOPE to the National Energy Board by Dr. Tim Takaro, a physician/scientist trained in occupational and environmental medicine, public health and toxicology. Dr. Takaro is a professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Associate Dean, Research at Simon Fraser University.
In his 2015 report, Dr. Takaro warns “the primary health outcome of concern is childhood leukemia arising from potential benzene exposure as a result of both routine operations and at Westridge Terminal and a pipeline or tanker spill”. The report states “The chronic condition of most concern in relation to the TMEP is acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). AML is a type of cancer which affects the blood stem cells in bone marrow, AML is the most common childhood cancer and is the leading cause of death from cancer in children”. Furthermore “babies exposed in utero carry the highest risk for AML”.
Dr. Takaro’s updated report, submitted to the NEB in December, 2018, urges “Any risk assessment of a fossil energy project must consider the upstream and downstream contribution to mortality and morbidity due to climate change of wildfires, heat events, air pollution, sea-level rise, flooding, water contamination, drought, food shortages, shifting infectious diseases, illnesses and injury from extreme weather events, mental health impacts, forced migration and related conflict, as well as the risks that climate change poses to healthcare structures and health-related supply chains. Benzene and benzo(a)pryene are carcinogenic exposures from dilbit with no safe exposure levels”.
The 2018 report also states “The increase in tanker traffic appears to be significantly greater than the seven-fold increase described by the proponent. Based upon the average number per year during the period 2015 to 2017, the increase is closer to twenty-fold”. Obviously, this increases some deadly health risks by similar magnitudes and spreads them over a wider geographical area.
The report concludes “The Government of Canada under CEAA (Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency), 2012 has a mandate to protect the environment and human health and to apply the precautionary principle. To fulfill this mandate, an independent, comprehensive and cumulative health impacts assessment of a large or credible worst-case spill in this high-risk area must be part of any consideration of this proposed project”.
Electronic Copies of Reports
Major Human Health Impacts of the Increase in Tanker Traffic Due to the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion by Dr. Tim Takaro Dec., 2018:
https://apps.neb-one.gc.ca/REGDOCS/File/Download/3718220
Major Human Health Impacts of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion by Dr. Tim Takaro et al. May, 2015:
https://apps.neb-one.gc.ca/REGDOCS/File/Download/2785040
Everyone is encouraged to show up at 12:15 PM at 800 Burrard Street - MAP. We plan to have a big image of the inside of card as well as a clothesline with small children’s cards for passers by.
This event takes place on unceded Coast Salish Territories: xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skxwú7mesh (Squamish) & səlil̓wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)
