In Part 3 of the “Dirty Dealing” series, I reported that a study by Hoffman and five other Dalhousie University researchers revealed that air levels of three of the seven volatile organic compounds (VOCs) assessed near the Northern Pulp mill exceeded cancer risk thresholds.

Over an eight-year period (2006-2013), 1,3-butadiene, benzene, and carbon tetrachloride were found to routinely exceed US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cancer-risk levels, which refer to the probability of contracting cancer if exposed to a concentration of a substance every day over the course of a 70-year lifetime.

According to the public and peer-reviewed study published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research — one of the few on record about airborne VOCs in rural Canada — many VOCs are either known or suspected of having direct toxic effects on humans, ranging from carcinogenic to neurotoxic and that “combinations of air toxics may have additive or synergistic adverse health effects.” By analyzing the available data, the study authors were able to show that the Abercrombie pulp mill (currently Northern Pulp) was a likely source of the contaminants.