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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
PADDLE SONG Cheryl McLeod Jr. (right) leads dancers from NicolaCanford Elementary in a traditional First Nations paddle song at School District 58’s Welcome Dinner last Tuesday at Merritt Secondary School. The event showcased dancers and drummers from other schools as well. SD58 Principal of Aboriginal Education Shelley Oppenheim-Lacerte said they’ve had a variety of First Nations activities and events held at the school district level, but this school year they’d like to shift that work to the classroom level in various subject areas. She said an example of this would be connecting the local First Nations bands and elders with social studies classes. Michael Potestio/Herald
Experts weigh in on air pollution and health number of inquiries about the impact of air pollution on health from people in the Merritt area. Ministry of Environment air pollution meteorologist Ralph Adams said the main air pollution issue in Merritt is particulate matter. Adams said the two types of particulate matter that are of concern in Merritt are fine particles produced by burning and other industrial activities, and larger particles produced by industrial sites. “If you see it on
By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
If you can see it, it’s probably not the kind of dust that’s very harmful to your health. That’s the message a panel of health and environmental experts told a crowd of about 15 people gathered at the Civic Centre for a forum on air pollution and public health on October 17. BC Lung Association programs manager Dr. Menn Biagtan said the forum was brought on by a ORIES D-DAY MEM3 PAGE
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your car or your lawn furniture or your window sill, that’s the very largest kind of particle,� Adams said. He said air pollution monitoring in Merritt is on hold until January, when the ministry’s monitoring technician returns. Adams also sits on the city’s air quality committee and, by way of his work with the ministry, is involved in industry permitting. He said the two new plants in Merritt — the Diacarbon pellet plant and the Merritt Green Energy Project — are not
miologist Dr. Sarah Henderson said the nature of air quality is complex as it involves pollution from countless sources. “Air pollution comes from a lot of different sources,� Henderson said. “When you think of your own community, you’re very aware of wind-blown dust, [and] wood chips you get from the mills. There’s also all the vehicles in the community, there’s also the fact that you’re heating your homes with natural gas or oil or wood. “What’s really hard
for us to know, when we take the complex mixture, [is] how much is contributed by any given source,� she said. “Portioning out the mixture to different sources is a really challenging thing to do.� The panellists began the forum with a presentation, which included a diagram to illustrate the size of particulate matter in comparison to a human hair. While large particles of dust such as fugitive dust kicked up from road shoulders and from sawmills is
taken care of in the upper respiratory system, it’s the smaller particulate matter which can get into people’s lungs that poses a bigger health risk. PM2.5 is about one-thirtieth of the width of a human hair. “Inside the human body, the larger the particles are, the less deeply they can penetrate into your lungs,� Henderson said. Even PM10 is largely taken care of in the upper respiratory tract, the panellists said.
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HERALD MERRITT Runners convene for Merritt race
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expected to contribute to an increase in air pollution. The Merritt Green Energy Project plant will use wood waste from neighbouring Tolko, and will transport that wood waste on a system of pneumatic conveyor belts. The dryers at the pellet plant are belt dryers instead of drums, which are powered by natural gas and run at far lower temperatures than drum dryers, producing much less smoke. BC Centre for Disease Control environmental epide-
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