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Thanks for the smoke

Thanks for the smoke Open letter to Elaine Taylor, minister of environment, and Archie Lang, minister of community services: Got my dose of dioxins, furans and who knows what else again this morning on my way to work while driving by the dump. Another d

Open letter to Elaine Taylor, minister of environment, and Archie Lang, minister of community services:

Got my dose of dioxins, furans and who knows what else again this morning on my way to work while driving by the dump.

Another dose on my way back, and the same tomorrow since the fire at the dump will still be smouldering and, maybe, the day after that - especially if I have to get rid of my garbage.

Never mind the more diluted exposure from living seven kilometres, or so, downwind.

I’m lucky, I still have no obvious signs that this treatment is “working,” but I’ve got at least one more year of regular intake by government’s orders.

A crow flies over my head away from the smoke not even a kilometre to the next First Nation’s subdivision, where lots of young families are raising their children.

One elder tells me his two grandchildren, one just a year old, have asthma attacks if the wind blows the smoke to their house. I cannot help but think that the burning of garbage would never happen if the dump were close to Copper Ridge. And you’d think living on the land was healthier than that.

What will it take to change?

A fool would know that the hidden costs in health care and environmental clean-up are far higher than the alternative.

How come we don’t get heard? Or is it that we just don’t count?

Gisela Niedermeyer

Carcross