[sustran] news item: air pollution

Craig Townsend townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au
Tue Jun 5 11:18:01 JST 2001


The following article from the online edition of the Globe and Mail may be 
of interest to Sustran. The online article contains links to the Ontario 
Medical Association's estimates of health impacts of air pollution and the 
Canadian Automobile Association's estimates of the cost of running a car.

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate/D/20010604/wairr0406?tf=RT/fullstory.html&cf=RT/config-neutral&vg=BigAdVariableGenerator&slug=wairr0406&date=20010604&archive=RTGAM&site=Front&ad_page_name=breakingnews

Monday, June 04

Clean-air campaign fights rising air pollution

By JOSIPA PETRUNIC

When commuters stepped off the train at Toronto's downtown Union Station 
Monday morning, they got an unexpected welcome from a provincial minister 
and a slew of supporters.

The commuters weren't athletes coming home from a successful tournament. 
They weren't dignitaries. They weren't really special in any way. All they 
did was take the train to work.

But for environmental groups such as Ontario's Pollution Probe, which has 
supported clean-air campaigns for nearly a decade, those commuters are 
saviours. With millions of illnesses, and thousands of deaths and hospital 
visits in Ontario every year due to smog, the group says that not only is 
commuting good for the environment, it literally saves lives.

In Ontario last year, there were about 1,900 premature deaths due to smog, 
along with another 9,800 hospital admissions and 47 million minor 
illnesses, such as asthma attacks, allergic reactions and throat problems. 
The vast majority of the air pollution that causes those illnesses comes 
from cars.

The Ontario Medical Association, which compiled those figures, also says 
that by 2015, the number of premature deaths due to smog will rise to 
2,600; hospital admissions will number 13,000; emergency room visits will 
be 18,000; and minor illnesses will increase to 53 million.

That's why Pollution Probe officials and provincial Environment Minister 
Elizabeth Witmer say they were at Union Station early in the morning, 
congratulating commuters as they stepped onto the platform to make their 
way toward the subway station or nearby office buildings.

The greetings heralded the official launch of Pollution Probe's month-long 
anti-smog campaign. The "Clean Air" campaign runs throughout June, and gets 
mid- to large-sized companies to compete for the most tonnes of pollution 
prevented. Companies that sign up are supposed to encourage employees to 
commute by any other means than driving.

Although bus riding and biking are obvious options, some participants have 
been more ambitious in the past, says Patty Chilton, a director at 
Pollution Probe. Last year, a couple lawyers canoed to the Harbour and then 
carried their canoe through the streets to their office, she says.

Pollution Probe mathematically assigns a number to different means of 
transportation that employees use, and then converts it into the tonnes of 
pollution saved.

Ms. Chilton says employees saved a total of 380 tonnes of pollution last 
year — including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other pollutants,

She hopes to get more companies involved each year, especially considering 
the costs associated with air pollution.

Air pollution adds more than $1-billion annually to the health-care system 
and to employers and employees because of lost work days, the medical 
association says.

It also estimates the value of "pain and suffering, and loss of life," due 
to smog is another $10-billion, which will rise to about $12-billion in 2015.

Pollution Probe says it has recently gained support from the federal 
government, too. The federal Liberals are apparently going to add to the 
Clean Air effort by announcing about $145-million in new environmental 
spending over the next two weeks. Some of the money will go toward 
improving water quality, energy efficiency and reducing smog across the 
country.

Environment Minister David Anderson and National Resources Minister Ralph 
Goodale say they are also planning to announce $50-million to reduce smog 
at a "smog summit" June 11 in Toronto. Those announcements are to coincide 
with this year's national Environment Week, which runs until Saturday, and 
with World Environment Day, held on Tueday.

But John Wellner, a director at Pollution Probe who follows the statistical 
rate of deaths from smog in the province, says a quicker local solution 
would be to lower the cost of bus passes so that commuters are attracted 
away from their cars.

With current prices, it costs more than $1,100 a year to buy a transit pass 
in Toronto. That compares with the estimated $8,900 a year that it costs to 
own and operate a car, according to the Canadian Automobile Association, 
which included the cost of gas, insurance and parking in its calculations.
But Mr. Wellner says there are thousands of more people who will not 
abandon their cars until public transit is even cheaper, faster and more 
comfortable.

"Governments have to increase their financial interest in public transit," 
he said.

With reports from Canadian Press




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