The risk society at work in the Sydney ‘Tar Ponds’

Abstract

This paper explores the implications of environmental contamination on the perceived health impacts, effects on daily life and coping mechanisms of residents living near the Tar Ponds in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The site contains over 700,000 tonnes of contaminated sediments and is considered one of the most contaminated commercial–industrial sites in Canada [Canadian British Consultants Limited (CBCL) and Conestoga Rovers and Associates (CRA) 1999 Phase 1 Site Assessment: Muggah Creek Watershed, Sydney, Nova Scotia]. Resident fears regarding perceived health risks, as well as other concerns related to property values and the viability of the local economy have been reinforced by distrust of government and of science. These concerns have been sustained by clean‐up delays. In response, many residents have engaged in forms of activism as a prominent form of coping, while several residents have kept well‐informed and sought social support. These findings indicate that the process of remediation and site clean‐up must be sensitive to local context.

The Sydney tar ponds: lessons learned from Canada’s first superfund level project

“…The public and media often equate risk with hazards. The risk theme was also explored on Sydney Tar Ponds by others (Haalboom et al [6]). Compounding this is the problem of degrees of risk.…”

“…the person has no risk or becomes very ill. Risk communication is a serious issue on most large hazardous waste projects. While some progress has been made, there is much more work to do [6][7][8].…”

Non-thermal, chemical destruction of PCB from Sydney tar ponds soil extract

“…"The Tar Ponds themselves are actually a tidal estuary of thirty-three hectares that contain over 700,000 tonnes of contaminated sediments including Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons [PAH], hydrocarbon (HC) compounds, coal, tar, Polychlorinated Biphenyls [PCB], coal dust, and municipal sewage" [1]. Environmental analysis of the Tar Ponds site and the degree of contamination showed that levels of PAH in the marine life were 200 times higher than elsewhere in Cape Breton [1].…”

“…PCB are another source of contamination present in the environment including the Sydney Tar Ponds [1]. They differ in chemical structure and toxicity in the number and arrangement of chlorine atoms on the biphenyl structure [6].…”

Inuit women, decision-making and contaminants.

“…The theoretical literature on thematic analysis is published almost exclusively in qualitative research journals (Aronson, 1994;Boyatzis, 1998;Crabtree and Miller, 1999;Bereska, 2003;Ryan and Bernard, 2003;Fereday and Muir-Cochrane, 2006) while empirical studies that have adopted thematic analysis are published throughout the social sciences literature including natural resource management (Pedynowski, 2003;Carr and Wilkinson, 2005;Ormsby and Mannle, 2006), geography (Haalboom et al, 2006), environmental planning (Jabareen, 2006), health (Anderson and Felsenfeld, 2003;Warner and Griffiths, 2006), nursing (Butcher et al, 2001;Saunders and Byrne, 2002;Fenwick et al, 2006;Jorgenson, 2006;Browne, 2007), sociology Reich, 2002;de la Rey and McKay, 2006) and psychology (Frith and Gleeson, 2004;Braun and Clarke, 2006). Thematic analysis is a well-respected method commonly adopted by social scientists representing diverse fields of study.…”