Higher Levels of Cancer Found Downwind from the Industrial Heartland of Alberta

In a rural area downwind from Canada's largest oil, gas and tar sands processing zone -- a region known as the Industrial Heartland of Aberta, levels of contaminants are higher than in some of the world's most polluted cities, researchers have found. The findings, led by scientists from the University of California, Irvine and the University of Michigan, also indicate elevated rates of cancers in men linked to the detected chemicals.

Together, the team captured emissions in the remote Fort Saskatchewan area located downwind from refineries, chemical manufacturers and tar sands processors owned by BP, Dow, Shell and other companies. By taking one-minute samples at random times in 2008, 2010 and 2012, the researchers determined that some dangerous volatile organic compounds were 6,000 times higher than normal.

The researchers revealed high levels of the carcinogens 1,2-butadiene and benzene as well as other airborne pollutants. They also looked at health records dating back more than a decade, which revealed higher levels of leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in communities closest to the pollution plumes.

While the scientists do not state that the pollutants were definitively the cause of the male cancers, they nevertheless call for a decrease in industrial emissions.

"Our study was designed to test what kinds of concentrations could be encountered on the ground during a random visit downwind of various facilities," UC Irvine chemist Isobel Simpson, lead author of the paper in Atmospheric Environment, said in a statement.

"We're seeing elevated levels of carcinogens and other gases in the same area where we're seeing excess cancers known to be caused by these chemicals," he explained. "Our main point is that it would be good to proactively lower these emissions of known carcinogens. You can study it and study it, but at some point you just have to say, 'Let's reduce it.' "