OTTAWA | Oct
20, 2006 — There is hardly a person in Canada
who has not used Teflon cookware, eaten from a bag of microwave popcorn,
or donned a water-resistant raincoat.
Inside
each of these non-stick products are chemicals called perfluorocarbons
(PFCs), which end up in the human bloodstream and remain there for decades.
Scientists recently found PFCs in
Great Lake fish and Arctic seals, a development that environmental groups
say is a serious public health concern.
A 2005 report from the United States Environmental
Protection Agency magnified these concerns, since it said some PFCs
may cause cancer. Several countries are now working on banning their
use.
But as the Canadian government takes steps to restrict these human-made
chemicals, environmentalists say the time for half-measures has passed.
 |
| Environment Minister Rona Ambrose had her blood
tested for PFCs. |
"There's no use in being indecisive," says Kapil Khatter, president
of Canadian Physicians for the Environment. "When something is
persistent and accumulative and could cause a health impact on people,
it should be banned."
It is the strength of the carbon-fluorine bonds inside these chemicals,
whose use dates back to the 1970s, that causes concern. The longer the
bond, the longer it takes to naturally break apart.
In August 2006, the Canadian Environmental Law Association, which
includes Khatter's organization, asked the federal government to remove
PFCs from all consumer products immediately.
The issue reached the attention of the environment minister, Rona Ambrose, who
recently agreed to be tested for PFCs at the request of an environmental group.
The results will be released later this fall.
| 'We've seen far too many examples
of these chemicals escaping into the environment and we don't know enough
about their effects.' |
"The minister decided to participate in the sampling proposed by
Environmental Defence to indicate her support for this kind of monitoring
and to raise awareness of the issue," wrote Shannon Haggarty,
a representative from Ambrose's office, in an e-mail response to our questions.
Canada's plan of attack
The federal government has taken some steps to reduce the use of
PFCs in Canada, but environmental groups say it is not enough.
Through two action plans to modify Canada's Environmental Protection
Act, the federal government is encouraging manufacturers to gradually
remove PFCs from some items on the market.
In July 2006, the government proposed an action plan in its law publication,
the Canada Gazette, to ban four fluorotelomers.
These are chemicals that become PFCs when they are released in the environment.
The House of Commons will not look at the plan for at least another
year.
The government is now drafting another plan, set to be released in the Gazette in
December, which aims to restrict and eventually ban the use of perfluorooctyl
sulfonates. Products with this type of PFC include carpets and fire-fighting
foam.
More than 300 environmental groups, government organizations and industry
stakeholders were invited to comment on the PFC sulfonate plan. About
10 groups responded.
To ban or not to ban?
Most organizations agreed a complete ban was impossible
for the time being, says Greg Carreau, an Environment Canada official
who oversaw the consultation process.
"We can't ask fire fighters to stop using their foam immediately
because it is an essential item for crash and rescue," Carreau says.
"What we have done is given them a time frame to convert to alternatives."
 |
| Scott Mabury taught parliamentarians about perfluorocarbons
Oct. 2, 2006. |
Scott Mabury, a chemist who heads an environmental research group at
the University of Toronto, says voluntary changes by industry have already
made a difference.
After the company 3M removed long-chain PFCs from its water repellant
Scotchgard in 2000, Mabury had a graduate student track a couple of
dozen Arctic seals to see if the chemicals in their bloodstream changed.
Within a year, the seals had practically no Scotchgard PFCs left.
"In light of Scotchgard, we largely understand the issue of perfluorocarbons
and we are taking obvious steps to remove them," Mabury said during
a speech Oct. 2 delivered to parliamentarians at the West Block.
But because of the chemical's persistence and the move by other countries
to ban it, Green Party deputy leader David Chernushenko says delaying
a Canadian ban on PFCs is not the right thing to do.
"We've seen far too many examples
of these chemicals escaping into the environment and we don't know enough about
their effects," Chernushenko says. "The
onus is on the government to prove these chemicals are safe." 
|
Government
of Canada’s PFCA action plan