B. C. taken to task for failure to inform public
Government has violated its duty to release information about incidents that put health and safety at risk, study finds
The provincial government routinely fails its legal duty to promptly inform citizens of risks to public health and safety, warn legal scholars at the University of Victoria.
Failures to disclose include air pollution, deteriorating infrastructure, parasite infestations, contaminated water and disease risk. Relevant information has been withheld from potential victims, scientists and the media — in some cases for almost a decade, says the university’s Environmental Law Clinic following a study of six cases across B. C.
On Tuesday, the group asked the province’s information and privacy commissioner for a full investigation into what it says appears to be “an ongoing system- wide failure” by government to disclose in timely fashion information with clear public safety implications.
The pattern needs to be addressed “before a catastrophe occurs,” it warned.
“Concerns about ‘ panicking’ the public must not become an excuse for withholding information,” the call for investigation says. “In many cases, the fact that the information is alarming is precisely why it must be disclosed.”
The submission, filed on behalf of the B. C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, says that under provincial law, public bodies are required to act “without delay” in publicly disclosing information about any “risk of significant harm to the environment or to the health or safety of the public.”
This duty overrides any other provisions in the law and requires authorities to disclose even if there has been no specific request for information. But authorities appear to apply too narrow and restrictive an interpretation of what the act requires, the researchers say.
For example, the researchers found that despite numerous reports that a dam near Oliver in the Okanagan Valley was in danger of collapse, provincial authorities made no apparent effort to warn residents “despite knowing of the threat for decades.”
When the dam did collapse on June 13, 2010, it triggered a huge mudslide that destroyed houses, farmland and farm equipment, the submission says. “If the dam had collapsed at night when residents were asleep, some would likely have died,” it says the RCMP reported.
In September 2008, air samples taken in Prince George — including some near a children’s play area — indicated concentrations of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, at three times the levels considered by Health Canada to be of concern to the health of the general population.
The province deemed the readings in error. However, it scheduled no new tests to see if this assumption was correct until early 2010, and it failed to draw public attention to the results or to possible health implications, the researchers report.
In 2002 and 2003, back- to- back collapses occurred in wild pink salmon populations migrating between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Concerns were raised that sea lice infestations around fish farm pens might play a role.
“The scientific community lacked important data on the abundance of sea lice at particular farms,” the researchers noted. But although the province held detailed records, it “refused to release the data, instead prioritizing the concerns of the aquaculture industry that the data be kept confidential.”
Only eight years later, following a direct order from the office of the information and privacy commissioner, did the province eventually release the critical data to scientists investigating the role of sea lice in wild salmon losses in 2002 and 2003.
And in 2008, the researchers say, the BC Centre for Disease Control and the Provincial Health Services Authority are alleged to have failed to promptly disclose at least two pieces of critical information about tick- borne Lyme disease.
Lyme disease is thought to be relatively rare in B. C. and is difficult to diagnose. It is caused by a bacteria transmitted by tick bites. It can have grave effects if not properly treated, but its symptoms often mimic or are masked by those from other serious disorders, creating multiple identification and treatment problems for health professionals and patients.
The UVic researchers say a key study conducted in 2008 and 2009 found that a substantial portion of Lyme disease cases in B. C. go unreported to provincial health authorities by doctors, despite legal obligations to report.
That study suggested that actual Lyme disease cases could be up to 25 times more numerous than previous official estimates. The finding was not released until 2011.
And provincial health authorities waited a year before releasing another key study on chronic Lyme disease in 2010, the submission says.
That study found that testing and treatment in B. C. were poor, that the actual level of infection in B. C. was unknown and that most medical doctors lacked adequate knowledge about the disease and its prevalence.
These findings were not released until 2011 — and only then in response to a freedom of information request, the researchers say.
“This information would have helped B. C. residents and doctors to educate themselves about the risks posed by Lyme disease, empowered people to take preventive measures to reduce their risks of contracting Lyme disease and contributed to an important discussion about changes to policy or law needed to grapple with the risks posed to public health,” the researchers wrote.
But it’s not just the provincial government that is failing to inform the public of potential health or other risks despite obligations to do so, the legal researchers say.
In 2002, test results obtained by the Cowichan Valley Regional District found high levels of nitrates in some groundwater in the small community of Cobble Hill.
More than 4,000 of the 4,500 residents drink well water. Tests in 2010 got similar results.
Although nitrates occur naturally in groundwater, heavy concentrations are associated with livestock operations, sewage treatment and agricultural fertilizers. At low levels, the compound is generally harmless, but at higher concentrations the colourless, odourless and tasteless substance can have serious health implications.
Water contaminated with heavy nitrate loads is also associated with higher concentrations of harmful bacteria like E. coli, whose presence can be amplified.
In Canada’s worst E. coli epidemic, hundreds fell ill and seven died in the Ontario farming community of Walkerton after drinking contaminated water in 2000. Scandal erupted there when it became known that the utilities commission was aware of contamination for days before reporting it to the public.
Nitrates in drinking water are of particular concern for infants and pregnant women because the compound impairs the ability of the blood to carry oxygen. Infants under six months, for example, can suffer “blue baby syndrome,” and the Saskatchewan government strongly advises nitrate testing for drinking water in any households with infants, pregnant women or nursing mothers.
Yet in Cobble Hill, the legal researchers say, despite test results showing elevated levels of nitrates in some well water, the regional government “refuses to release well test data” even though the issue has been at the forefront of a vigorous public debate in the community.
The regional government refused to disclose data even to one of its own environmental committees, the submission says, citing concern about negative impact upon property values.
“In each case, a public body was in possession of information that could have alerted an identifiable group of the public to a significant risk of harm,” the submission says of its research. “In each case, the public body chose not to disclose.
“If public bodies feel that they must refrain from disclosing information except in situations where a serious harm has become inevitable, we will lose one of the greatest benefits of proactive disclosure — the ability to take corrective action before harm occurs.”