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Editorial – Editor:
(An open letter to MP Cheryl Gallant)
Dear Ms. Gallant:
As a taxpayer of your riding I want you to put a stop to the manufacture and export of tritium-filled devices at the location on Boundary Road in Pembroke. I am very concerned about a threat to the environment and health of our citizens here, not to mention the threat to security worldwide.
Disturbing information continues to come out through the Community of Concerned Citizens here in Pembroke as well as reports on CBC radio and the Globe and Mail. It truly makes one confused at the wisdom of government leaders at all levels who are supposed to be able to read the data, and then make sound decisions that protect the people who elected them.
Facts about tritium cause me concern. Exposure can cause cancer. Tritium has been found in the groundwater around the plant up to 20 times the limit of Canada’s drinking water standard and then dumped via the sewer system right into the Ottawa River. This is so alarming that I wonder what the delays in shutting down this operation are about.
We are an educated and connected group of people through the Internet. To dispute facts about these chemicals is simply ignorant. When I read in the Globe and Mail and listen to radio interviews on the CBC about pollution in Pembroke, I am embarrassed and ashamed that practices like this are going on in my community.
There are a number of negatives about the sign production going on at SRB Technologies but one that really makes me puzzled is why a Canadian company would be allowed to send 70,000 tritium light sources to Iran of all places. Whether the amount in each light is considered small or not, tritium is, after all, a key fuel for fusion. Why on earth would the Canadian government allow a company here to sell this product to a country as unstable as Iran? I am baffled by the optics alone.
It seems to me that when disputes occur that affect our environment we should read as much as we can and listen to the people on both sides. We should then look at who stands to benefit financially, and at what cost to health and the environment. In a letter to Prime Minister Harper, Dr. Ole Hendrikson along with groups such as Energy Probe, Ottawa Riverkeeper, Greenpeace, Council of Canadians to name some, urged that “safer, more effective, and cheaper alternatives to tritium lights are available.” Why doesn’t SRB Technologies look after their employees and turn their sights to a better product for all concerned?
We need to do better and we need our politicians to stand up for us. Sincerely
Lynne Epps,
Voter
Pembroke, ON