A toxic drop in the bucket
DIY environmentalists won't wait for
others to clear the air
BY Jesse McLean
Photography courtesy Global Community Monitor
For years, Ada Lockridge smelled the sweet stench of
chemicals billowing out of the surrounding industries. And for
years, the Ministry of the Environment reassured her and the
Aamjiwnaang First Nations that the air was fine. But Lockridge
isn't waiting for their reassurances any longer.
In May, the Aboriginal community teamed up with
international pollution busters Global Community Monitor
(GCM) and began conducting their own air monitoring, the
first such step in Canadian history. Think of it as do-it-yourself
environmentalism. "The government let us down," says
Lockridge, an Aamjiwnaang resident who is also the chair of
the community's health and environment committee. "I always
thought someone was looking out for us. Now we're looking out
for ourselves."
Armed with the "bucket brigade"—a device that's built inside
a five-gallon plastic bucket and can detect upwards of 88 toxins
in the air—Lockridge intends to report the data collected in
the buckets directly to the ministry and the public. Removing
the government's reliance on the industries' records, which
often claim to have no off-site impact, is empowering for the
community, says GCM's program director, Ruth Breech. "We're
balancing the playing field by getting the whole side of the
story."
The Aamjiwnaang community, whose reserve is fenced in on
three sides by factories in Ontario's infamous Chemical Valley,
gained international attention in 2004 after health surveys
discovered that female births outnumbered males by a two-to-one ratio. Several health experts suspect the skewed ratio is
linked to gender-bending chemicals.
Yet Lockridge is clear that the intention isn't to shut the
industries down. Rather, the goal is to understand what
chemicals are in the air and the
health risks they carry, for those
on the reserve and beyond.
"Whether you're within our
community or a worker in
the industries, you should
know what you're
breathing—and we're
going to help," she says.
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