Friday, March 10, 2006

Where's Julia Roberts when you need her?

If I was Erin Brockovich I would have been all over Fort McMurray years ago. I always thought that we had higher than normal rates of cancer but I wasn't sure. When I left Fort Mac and met other people my own age and started talking (not that cancer was always a big subject)I began to realize that I knew WAY too many young people with cancer...all kinds of cancer. Fort McMurray had a population of about 35,000 when I grew up there. I can list dozens of people, mostly under 20, who I have known (or known of)and who have had cancer. Skin cancer, nose cancer, leukemia, stomach cancer...not to mention the number of people with weird ailments and diseases. I have been saying for years now that some day people were going to discover that the oilsands are killing people. Looks like I was right. Lucky me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting that Dr O'Connor is questioning this. I remember my nine day stint as a pipefitter (can you believe that was nine years ago?) and how I went to Dr Ting or Wong Ting, can't remember whether it was the husband or the wife, complaining of how I had started working at Suncor and now a week later I had all this congestion in my chest. The Dr brushed it off as allergies and sent me on my way. Every time I'd go back to work there I went through the same thing. I totally think there's something behind what they're saying about it being a health hazard, and I think it's been kept quiet by a lot of people who should have said something about it.

Eileen said...

I miss you too!