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The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday July 30, 2003 - A5 Halton had nine smog advisories last year (Continued from page 1) Region steps up effort to fight West Nile virus Jason Misner S P E C IA L T O T H E B E A V E R Ontario Medical Association (OMA), stresses even healthy individuals are vul nerable to smog-related illnesses. "There's no question, long term repeat ed exposure to smog, even in healthy peo ple leads to a high incidence of heart and lung disease, asthma (and) obstructive lung disorder." He adds, "The group most affected, most severely during an acute episode, would be those with lung disease and heart disease-- the reason being the partic ulate matter causes damage to the lung's lining and can trigger inflammation and swelling." A recent study conducted by the OMA found Halton had 55 premature deaths in the year 2000, 400 hospital admissions and 1,425 emergency visits as a result of air pollution. Last year, the MOE issued nine smog advisories in the Halton region covering 18 days from May to September. To date, two smog advisories covering seven days have been issued since May. The MOE will issue a smog advisory when there is a high probability for ele vated smog levels. Whether the region will see a jump from last year's numbers, MOE spokesman, Mark Rabbior said it isn't an easy prediction. "It's hard to say because smog is so dependent on the weather. The start of the summer was cool and wet. Our first smog advisory day was not until the end of June, which is quite later than what we'd seen previously. . .and then we saw some warm, dry conditions with the wind from the southwest over the last couple weeks and that's why we've had a couple smog advisories since then." But according to Erlick, it isn't neces sarily safe to stay outdoors for a long peri od of time even during moderate air-quality days. "Clear (weather) doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy because the ozone could be high. It partly depends on the size of the particles, like anything else it's a ques tion of the level plus the hours of expo sure. Obviously the poorer quality, the less exposure you want." This is especially true for the more sen- Harrlson Smith · Special to the Oakville Beaver Traffic ja m s on the Q E W can m ake smog conditions worse on hot, muggy su m m er days. sitive groups such as the elderly, young children, cyclists and joggers, who spend hours outdoors and breathe in more pol luted air. Beckie Jas, environmental health spe cialist for the Halton Region Health Department, warns the effects of smog are exacerbated by conditions of extreme heat. "Smog can often accompany extreme heat and the smog and the heat levels can actually increase the health risk by adding more stress to the body, so that would hap pen when perhaps there's a smog alert and heat alert all issued at the same time." Jas said the best way for residents to reduce their contribution to the smog problem is to carpool and turn your engine off rather than leaving the engine running. "... Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel than actually restarting your engine." She also recommends that residents stay out of the sun on days of extreme heat, limit their activities to evenings and mornings, try to visit airconditioned sites and call and visit friends who are most vulnerable to feeling the affects of smog. Initiatives by the province to combat smog and improve air quality include: the drive clean program, and caps placed on fossil fuel generating stations to reduce emissions by 2007. "We've seen substantial reduction in emissions from vehicles by the drive clean program in the phase one area, which was the Toronto and Hamilton area, and now it's been expanded so now we expect that we would continue to see increased emis sions reductions as a result of drive clean," said Rabbior. The OMA estimates yearly costs from pollution related illness totals more than $1 billion. For more information on smog, visit MOE's Web site at www.ene.gov.on.ca. Halton Region may set up a registry of residents with health problems to notify ahead of time if pesticide is sprayed into the air to combat West Nile virus. The registry - which would bank the names, postal code and phone numbers of residents - would help the Region to per sonally contact them 48 hours before spray ing a neighbourhood. The registry would include residents with health problems like asthma, heart problems or respiratory illnesses. While the Region has not yet made a decision on spraying for mosquitoes, it has an Erin Township-based company on a 515,000 retainer in the event fogging is needed. "This is going an extra mile trying to make every effort to make sure their noti fied personally," said Peter Willmott, direc tor of Halton's public health department. "We're awaiting (the Province's) guidance as to how we should proceed. We're expect ing to get some advice shortly." Creating such a registry won't require council approval, he noted. Ottawa and York Region are the only Ontario municipalities to establish a similar registry. This kind of registry is not mandatory, but the Ministry of Health already requires that health units give written notice to com munities that will be sprayed with insecti cides. Also, municipalities using larvicides must give residents 48 hours notice through mediums like newspaper ads and radio spots. Last week, the first dead crow in Halton tested positive for West Nile virus. The crow was found July 19 in an urban part of Burlington, south of the QEW. To date in Halton, a total of 15 crows - considered the most common bird species to carry the mosquito-bome virus - have been tested. To report a dead bird, call (905) 825-6187. More than half of the province's 36 health units have reported at least one bird felled by the West Nile virus this year. And local statistics revealed that human cases in Halton began to show up in 2002 about three to four weeks after dead crows with West Nile began to peak. On July 24, Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Commissioner of Public Health and Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario, announced that an individual in Renfrew County area was the first Ontario resident to test positive for West Nile virus this year. However, health officials believe the first case is travel-related a the individual recently returned from a trip to a U.S. state where there is known West Nile virus activ ity and confirmed human cases. The health department will increase sur veillance and monitoring in the area of Burlington where the dead crow was found That includes increasing the number of mosquito traps set up in the area from one to as many as six, as well as increased dip ping of stagnant pools of water where mos quitoes are known to breed. Another part of the Region's West Nile protection program - and an important one - is a blood study undertaken in Oakville. But results of the provincially-funded study designed to show how widespread West Nile virus infection was last year have been delayed while positive samples are retested. Researchers are concerned that other diseases - such as Dengue fever or St Louis encephalitis, which belong to the same family of viruses as West Nile and cause many of the same symptoms - may be skewing the study's final results. The study involved drawing blood in May and June from 1,505 people living in two postal code areas in Oakville. Travelling abroad is not uncommon for res idents these areas. The Province couldn't say how many have to be retested, but said most of the samples showed a positive result of some kind. Ministry of Health spokesperson Tanya Cholakov said the Province's timeline for the results to be ready has always been the end of July, and "we're still on schedule." Halton's Medical Officer of Health Dr. Bob Nosal had hoped to have the results in his hands by now, but has said that the absence of human cases up until this point means the information would still be useful this year. *S52£ L o w v iU e G o lf C o u r s e * Simply by subscribing to the Oakville Beaver for 1 years. (2 year subscription = 2 passes) Current subscribers are eligible when an additional 1 year subscription is purchased.