Taking the mystery out of Nova Scotia's tar ponds CMAJ 1997;156:973 © 1997 Canadian Medical Association Three levels of government have committed $1.7 million to support community-based environmental initiatives to study ways to clean up the tar ponds in Sydney, NS. Nearly a century of discharge from steel-making operations in Cape Breton's industrial heartland had turned a tidal inlet into toxic-waste site that was considered an environmental cleanup problem second only to the Love Canal near Niagara Falls, NY (Robb N. Were jobs more important than health in Sydney? CMAJ 1995;152:919­923). Although a cleanup is still years away, the federal, provincial and municipal governments have agreed to fund several initiatives recommended by a citizens' group. Included are an analysis of the amount of contamination of the tanks, other structures and piles of coal, coke and sulphur on the site of former coke ovens. The funding will also pay to design a collector system to reduce discharges of raw sewage and to monitor the flow of contaminated water into the watershed. Updating the area's cancer registry is another priority; CMAJ's 1995 article noted that Sydney reports unusually high rates of cancer, including leukemia and stomach, lung, colon, kidney and pancreatic cancers. Send a letter to the editor responding to this article Envoyez une lettre à la rédaction au sujet de cet article | CMAJ April 1, 1997 (vol 156, no 7) / JAMC le 1er avril 1997 (vol 156, no 7) |