Canadian doctor speaks to U.S. Senate about oilsands health effects

Video: California senator Barbara Boxer calls for studies into the health effects of the Keystone XL pipeline

A Canadian doctor spoke to U.S. senators on Wednesday about the health issues he’s seen in communities near oilsands developments.

John O’Connor was invited to speak with the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works as part of a call by committee chair Senator Barbara Boxer to evaluate the public health impacts of the oilsands in relation to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

“Health miseries follow the tar sands, from extraction, to transport, to refining, to waste disposal,” Boxer said at a press conference. “Children and families in the U.S. have a right to know now, before any decision to approve the Keystone tar sands pipeline, how it would affect their health.”

She wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry, requesting an “immediate and comprehensive study on the human health impacts of tar sands and the proposed pipeline.”

“I’m talking about the issues in the communities downstream of the tar sands and the promised health studies that have never materialized,” O’Connor told Global News in a telephone interview in between Senate meetings on Wednesday.

O’Connor, a family physician currently practicing in Fort McKay, came under fire in 2006 when he raised concerns that oil development near the northern Alberta community of Fort Chipewyan was causing cancer and other health problems in the community.

He was seeing cancers and autoimmune diseases, he said, and wanted to get detailed health studies to find the cause.

“I’m not saying that the tar sands are causing health problems in these communities because I can’t say that because it’s never been studied. But we sure have a lot of smoking guns,” he said.

A 2009 study by the Alberta Cancer Board found higher than normal cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan, but stated that because these findings were based on a small number of cases, the rates could be due to chance. Updated figures are expected soon – the government announced in December that they would be ready within weeks.

O’Connor sees his appearance at the committee as advocacy on behalf of his patients. “This is a golden opportunity to express and inform people that we have been promised health studies and those promises have been broken.”

O’Connor is also worried Alberta physicians are afraid to speak out about links between oil development and health problems – a concern raised during a recent hearing into emissions near Peace River. O’Connor has been in contact with the Labrecque family of Reno, Alberta, a member of which made that claim.

READ MORE: Alberta families leaving home for health reasons blame oil giants next door

He says doctors have approached him at speaking events and conferences and told him that it would be hard to act as he did and speak out publicly: Health Canada laid complaints of professional misconduct against him in 2007, saying that he had caused “undue alarm” among local residents among other issues – accusations that were later cleared by the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons.

“There’s certainly an expressed reluctance as to whether they would act the way I did or take on the role that I took on,” he said, adding that he thinks it would be easier now. “I think now it’s different because there’s so much spotlight on all the information that’s out there.”

The public comment period on the Keystone XL pipeline ends Mar. 7, according to the U.S. Department of State’s website. The department has released a report on the environmental impact of the pipeline and is reviewing whether the project would be in the national interest.