According to local sources,…

According to local sources, Algoma Steel's request for pollution exemptions are underhanded and sickening, literally and figuratively.

These requests are unacceptable and will harm every single member of the Soo public:

- benzene is classified as genotoxic and a human carcinogen by Health Canada and carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Algoma Steel’s requested new site-specific standard for benzene is 884 per cent of the provincial standard

- benzo(a)pyrene is classified by Health Canada as a human carcinogen and by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as carcinogenic to humans. Algoma Steel’s requested standard is 53,000 per cent of the provincial standard

- Algoma Steel's requested standard for total suspended particulate matter is 112.5 per cent of the provincial standard

- Algoma Steel’s requested site specific standard for sulphur dioxide is 340 per cent of the provincial standard

Algoma Steel must be required to meet the provincial standards in all cases. Allowing these exceptions to further their profits while poisoning the community is both wrong and totally irresponsible. The provincial and federal governments have already given the Steel plant hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money. Allowing these ridiculous standards will costs people's lives and will increase health care costs for everyone.