Independent Expert Finds Whitney Pier Blueberries Perfectly Safe

SYDNEY TAR PONDS AGENCY--Independent Expert Finds Whitney Pier Blueberries Perfectly Safe

An independent expert and scientific evaluators from Health Canada have concluded that blueberries picked just a stone's throw from the former Sydney Steel Coke Ovens are perfectly safe to eat.

Dr. Beverly Hale, an eco-toxicologist from the University of Guelph, compared berries from Blueberry Hill, a favourite picking spot in Whitney Pier, with berries from North Sydney and supermarket samples of Ontario and Quebec berries.

All the berries were safe. None had worrisome levels of heavy metals or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), constituents of coal and coke that are found in large quantities at the Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens.

There were some differences among the samples, as would be expected in any sampling program. The Whitney Pier berries had trace levels of selenium and zinc higher than those from North Sydney and the supermarket, but the supermarket berries had higher trace levels of thallium. Trace levels of arsenic, vanadium, lead, copper, and molybdenum were similar in all samples. No chromium was found.

While more than 100 different PAHs are known to exist, extremely sensitive tests found minute quantities of only two, pyrene and flouranthene, in a single unwashed berry sample from Whitney Pier. The PAHs in that sample were near the limits of detection. No PAHs were detected in the washed sample from the same area.

The Chemical Health Hazard Assessment Division of Health Canada's Bureau of Chemical Safety carried out a human health risk assessment of the laboratory results and found no risk to human health in any of the berry samples.

The risk assessors calculated that for even a potential health risk to occur, a person would have to eat almost five pounds of blueberries per week, 52 weeks a year, for more than 70 years.

"This is great news," said Dr. Charl Badenhorst, district medical officer of Health for Cape Breton. "Together with the 2001 Chronic Health Risk Assessment, the 2001 biological testing, and the statistical analysis of soil samples, the blueberry study provides mounting support for our belief that Sydney is a safe place to live."

"The studies confirm that soil is one of the least likely pathways for harmful exposure to chemicals in the environment," said Dr. Badenhorst.

David Darrow, CEO of the provincial agency that will clean up the Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens, said the study serves as a reminder to keep Sydney's pollution problems in perspective.

Copies of Dr. Hale's complete report, and a brief summary of it, can be downloaded from the Tar Ponds website, http://gov.ns.ca/stpa/. The documents are stored in the Library section, under the subject, Blueberries.