NATIONAL OBSERVER | A new study says there are 'strikingly high' rates of cancer in some Ontario industrial cities
For years, residents in some of Canada’s largest industrial cities have wondered whether toxins from petrochemical plants and other manufacturers are making them sick.
A new peer-reviewed study has found “strikingly high” rates of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in Canadian border towns, including Sarnia, Ont., a city whose manufacturing sector is referred to as Canada’s Chemical Valley. The paper was produced by a team of researchers led by Ivan Litvinov, a Montreal dermatologist at the research institute of the McGill University Health Centre.
“There's quite a lot of people who are suffering. And so that means we've got to get our resources out there,” Litvinov said. “We need to make sure that we have the education, the support services and our abilities to treat those patients.”