WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1986, PAGE 5 "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." - Thomas Jefferson THE CROW'S NEST by Michael Knell The East Ward is simply bustling with the sounds of protest these days over the proposai of Decom Medical Waste Transportation Systems Inc. to develop a biomedical waste transfer station on Sunray St. in the Hopkins St./Consumers Dr. industrial park. If the news reports I've been reading recently are accurate (and I've no doubt they are) it seems to be there are a bunch of hotheads running around the East Ward with nothing but ignorance, bias, and unfounded prejudice. Decom has appealed a recent decision by Whitby Town Council denying them the right to build their biomedical waste transfer station to the Environmental Assessment Board. That appeal will probablybe successful because it will deal in facts, plans, documented evidence and reason. Those who oppose the Decom proposai do so emotionally. From what I have read and been told, they are not protesting with cold facts and reason. Instead, we'règetting a bunch of red herrings. One of the reasons given by opponents of the station is that Whitby will become "abortion city'. Excuse me, I don't see the connection. To make such a comment, I would think, indicates they believe that because the station exists the demand for abortions will increase and that Whitby would become the location of this medical procedure. What a bunch of horse hockey! When I read that, I laughed. The only way to fight ignorance is with reason. So, let's examine the facts. Fact one. Decom isn't proposing to be the creator of biomedical waste but is offering a means for its collection and disposai. Fact two. Decom, as part of its license application, has detailed every possible fact about its facility. They have shown how the building will be built. They will demonstrate how it will be operated. Fact three. They will demonstrate how the disposai process works. They will show the E.A.B. the plans for refridgerated trucks, the special trash cans and plastic bags. Fact four. Decom has already publically said that it will accept any regimen of inspections required either by council, the Department of Health or the Ministry of the Environment. Fact five. At none of the public meetings I attended did any opponent of the Decom proposai bring forward any evidence to suggest that the company would not adhere to the conditions of its license. Furthermore, consider fact six. Biomedical waste in Durham Region, with the sole exception of pathological waste, is not treated any differently from common household garbage. In other words, it ends up in the landfill site without any special protection or treatment. This would suggest to me that perhaps Decom isn't the problem. Perhaps they are the solution. When this proposal was before council last year, Dr. Jean Gray, the medical officer of health remarked that while she was satisfied that the current means of biomedical waste disposai in Durham Region were adequate and did not present a health hazard, there exist better ways to get the job done. While she did not exactly endorse the Decom proposai, she did appear to sup- port it and gave reasonable encouragement to council to do likewise. What disturbs me the most about the entire process that will lead the E.A.B. hearings in a few weeks is that the current method of biomedical waste disposai has not come under great political scrutiny or criticism. Politicians and laymen have been quick to oppose and denouce the Decom measure and yet have not of- fered a viable alternative. Furthermore, no one has yet expressed concern over the current disposai methods. I'm only a layman, but it appears to me that biomedical waste should receive special treatment. After all, radioactive-materials is not simply dumped in a landfili willy-nilly. And neither, in my opinion, should biomedical waste be so casually disposed of. During the council sponsored public meetings, some opponents said that they opposed the Decom proposai because they feared the spread of disease. Didn't they understand that if Decom operates in a professional, exacting manner, the spread of disease is exactly what will be prevented. I really don't want to take Decom's side. But, on the other hand, I don't want to see the company gain a reputation that it doesn't deserve. I also don't like to see people oppose something as needed as this for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps it's because Decom is a privately owned company that expects to make a profit from its waste disposai operations that has people upset. Provided that Decom does what it says it will do, why should anyone have ob- jections to their earning a return on their investment? What we are currently witnessing in Whitby is an act of ignorance borne out of the fear of a number of well intentioned people who are obviously not in command of the facts. This has become an emotional issue. Many people have offered opinions and emotional reactions but not much in the way of facts. - If someone can give me a set of real hard core facts to oppose the Decom proposai I wiî do so wholeheartedly. But from where I sit, the facts seem to speak out for themselves. Decom is proposing to provide a service that is desperately needed by the health care industry in this part of Ontario. Biomedical waste disposai is a serious issue,. one that has not been dealt with seriously enough either by our local or our regional council. Emotional reaction isn't going to find the solutions we need. Tossing out red herrings such as this site will make us party to abortion is a determined effort to cloud the facts. I don't like the idea of having a facility such as Decom's in Whitby. But it is needed. Unless someone can prove differently. WITH OUR FEET UP By Bill Swan Some news items have a way of burrowing into the memory and branding a few brain cells as their own. One of a few years ago still lurches into my con- scious mind once in a while. The item originated from the mid-western United States. It announced the formation of the Procrastinators Club of America. Now the formation of a service club of any kind in the good old Yew-Knighted States cannot be con- sidered new. Service clubs and self-help organizations simply blossom there. Look around at any town in Ontario. Watch the signs at the town limits, either coming or going, and read the list of clubs. Got it? You bet! It's the same list of service clubs and organizations you find in any town, U.S.A. The only purely Canadian service club, to my knowledge, is the Bell Ringers International, a ser- vice club that appeared in the movie Why Rock the Boat? - a satire on daily newspapers and all the in- stitutions held sacred for the profit motive. (I pause here in the middle of a digression to acknowledge that somewhere lurks a purely Canadian service club, and something tells me that Mike Burgess and Bill McOuat will hear about that within twenty four hours.) But again I digress. Make a list of the most prominent clubs: Rotary, Toastmasters, Lions, Jaycees: all sound vigorous and purposeful. But Procrastinators Club of America? The claim the organization makes revolves around the difficulty in getting members to join. Those who would make good members never quite get around to signing a membership card. And they keep putting off having an annual meeting. You get the picture. But the whole scheme sounds so un-American. Americans? Procrastinating? This can only be an idea in which there is no money. Now the home of true procrastination belongs, as everyone knows, in Canada. We invented procrastination. Sure, the Americans formed a club. But Americans are like that. We Canadians lay claim the international headquarters of procrastination purely because we never did get around to even talking about formation of a club. We kept putting it off. But could you imagine a better headquarters for Procrastinators International than that great city to our east, Oshawa? Why the residents have been put- ting off doing anything there for years. Could you think of a better honorary president than Brian Mulroney? (Yeah, Larry Grossman, but let's keep this on a national level.) Anyway, you get the idea. The Procrastinators In- ternational belongs in Canada. We're the only ones who would keep doing nothing with the best of ideas. Bad ideas, it seems, we act on swiftly. How else could Joe Clarke end up as a former prime minister? Enough philosophy. Back to the news. Earlier this week, a similar item appeared in daily newspapers across the land: the formation, in Baden, Ont., of the Pessimists Club. A bunch of guys got together and figured that if there can be an Optimists Club, then surely there could be a Pessimists Club. In true fashion, they have not got around to electing officers. But they have been able to raise enough funds and volunteer help to win first prize in the local Santa Claus parade several times. (Baden, incidently, is near Kitchener, and not far from New Dundee, Ont. New Dundee is the village which became known nationally as Dire Straits. That followed a comment by Pierre Trudeau, as prime minister, that the economy was not as bad as people said it was, what with interest rates at the time of 22 percent or so, but that the government would be willing to help anyone in dire straits. A bunch of the boys in New Dundee promptly painted over the village welcome sign, renaming the village Dire Straits to qualify for government assistance.) There must be something in the water down that way.