Study hoped to explain northern Native sickness

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Higher than average Aboriginal health concerns may be explained in the final report of the Norhtern River Basin Study, expected to be released soon.

The findings of the six year study are expected within a month, and many Aboriginal communities in the north are interested to see it. The two main rivers flowing into the north are the Athabasca in the east and the Peace in the west.

Don Henriet, the executive director of the North Peach Tribal Council, hopes the report may explain the higher than average health problems being experienced in the High Level area.

"We have the highest rate of respiratory illness [in the province]," said Henriet.

Numbers and statistics are one thing, he said, but it really hits home when you see babies in strollers with oxygen masks and tubes sticking up their noses.

Industry in the area may be a culprit, he said, noting instances where fly ash in the air is sometimes thick enough to leave a layer on the dashboards of vehicles.

"If its coming into my vehicle, I want to know if its going into my lungs,' he said.

Not all the medical problems may be from industry, he admitted, some could be home-grown.

"Is it housing conditions, the air we breath, the water we drink, or the fish we eat? Just let us know so we can start to correct some of these things," he said.

Henriet said there have been several studies conducted in the area, and although he would like to have seen this latest one last a few years more, he hopes it will provide some answers, so the people aren't left wondering.

Henriet was a member of the board which requested government to conduct the Northern River Basin Study. He said local Aboriginal people wanted to get some answers and be a part of the solution.

George Smitt, chairman of the area's regional health authority said low birth weights and respiratory problems in the area are a concern, but whether answers will be found from a river-based study is hard to say.

"We have low birth weights throughout the region, from west to east and the west is 200 miles from the [Peace] river," he said.

Smitt said the Aboriginal communities in the area do use the medical services more than Aboriginal people in other regions, but there are a lot of factors to explain that.

"It may be the types of housing or the heating fuels. It's not necessarily the water that is causing that type of thing.'

At Fort Chipewyan, in northeastern Alberta, Mikisew Cree First Nation Chief Archie Waquan is hoping the study will tell his people why they are suffering from arthritis and diabetes - illnesses that were non existent in the community 50 years ago.

He would like to see how badly area waters are polluted from industry, and not just local industry.

Waquan believes contaminants and pesticides travel up the river system from as far away as farmland in southern Alberta.

Developments and the lack of restrictions on pollution are making the people of the north very sick, he said.

"It's good to have development, but at what cost," he asked. "It's nice to have work, but at what cost."

Like Henriet, Waquan would like the study to have lasted longer, he also wanted more emphasis put on the people, not just the waters.

"We are the ones in the area and we are the ones being affected.

Health Canada helped sponsor the study with Alberta Health, Alberta Environment and the Government of the North West Territories.