INDEX PCB Digest - 4/16/02
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1) Public Concern Temiskaming - Press Release - 4/16/02
Kirkland Lake Plunged Into Health Crisis After Docs Attacked Over PCB Stand

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1) Public Concern Temiskaming - Press Release - 4/16/02
Kirkland Lake Plunged Into Health Crisis After Docs Attacked Over PCB Stand

Kirkland Lake - The battle over a proposed dioxin/PCB incinerator for Kirkland Lake is seriously impacting the community's already critical shortage of doctors. Last week, 10 local physicians raised health concerns about the proposed incinerator. This led to a bitter backlash from local pro-waste politicians. As a result, some doctors are voting with their feet.

Dr. Marianne Talman is the first of what could be a number of doctors who have decided to leave the community because of town council's bullish stand on toxic waste imports. In a letter to the local newspaper, Dr. Talman says the doctors had a duty to warn residents of the potential health threat from burning dioxin near two school yards and a day care. Those threats include miscarriages, cancers and genetic malformations.

The doctors' stand, however, infuriated Kirkland Lake's pro-waste council. Local politicians roundly attacked the doctors' credibility in the local press. Following an editorial in last Friday's Northern Daily News entitled "Doctors Tell Twisted Tale", Dr. Talman has said enough. She will be leaving the community in June.

"This is much more of a health issue than a political one," Dr. Talman wrote the paper. “And as such, physicians are entirely suited to evaluate the impact of toxins on public health.....which evidently is not appreciated by Mayor. Enouy. It is this sort of attitude, which is cultivated by local media and municipal politicians, that has finalized my decision to no longer work in this community."

Barb Bukowski, a spokesperson with Public Concern Temiskaming, says the mayor's militant support for the incinerator is leading to a dangerous bleed-off of professional people from Kirkland Lake.

"Good people are leaving Kirkland Lake. We lose more and more all the time. Now we are risking the loss of valued family physicians while our council chases after 30 dirty jobs," says Bukowski.

She believes the attack on the doctors is a new low in what has become an increasingly bitter battle. "Anyone who asks questions about this project or raises concern is attacked and told to mind their own business. Now our family doctors are being attacked. If doctors don't have the right to speak out about health issues posed by this project, who does?"


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