AEHA: NS

About AEHA-NS & Coalition Partners:

Lead partner:

Allergy And Environmental Health Association, Nova Scotia (AEHA-NS)
E-Mail: aeha-ns@geocities.com

Coalition members:

Allergy and Environmental Health Association, New Brunswick (AEHA-NB)

Allergy and Environmental Health Association, Canada (AEHA-Canada)

Real Alternatives to Toxics in the Environment (RATE)

NS Coalition on Environmental Hypersensitivity (NSCEHS)

Nova Scotia Government Employees Union

Citizens for A Safe Learning Environment (CASLE)

Citizens for Choice in Health Care

Nova Scotia League for Equal Opportunities

Camp Hill Environmental Victims Support Group

Please send all inquires to aeha-ns@geocities.com.

We know that when persons are diagnosed with environmentally induced illness/chemical sensitivity generally the single most important item to change is to remove all sources of open combustion in their living, schooling and working spaces, especially any using natural gas, and most especially any cooking or space heating or other appliances with natural gas. Although furnace rooms can be vented outdoors, often they are not and pipes can and often do leak. To affected persons, natural gas tends to be even more problematic than fuel oil. Switching to electric cooking, appliances and heating is generally recommended. Solar heat is best of all.

Currently, there is no piped natural gas used in the Maritime Provinces. Having none is likely to have significantly reduced the overall burden of toxic substances in homes and workplaces. Any additional burden of toxins will adversely affect all of our members and will similarly affect all persons to a greater or lesser extent certainly causing more cases of environmentally induced illness/chemical sensitivity and worsening the severity of others.

Our objectives are to insure that this environmental assessment process fully addresses the issues of environmentally induced illness/chemical sensitivity, asthma and allergy and protects completely the health and well-being of present and future persons with environmentally induced illness/chemical sensitivity, asthma and allergy.

AEHA has many years experience developing awareness of, and promoting, environmental health issues. AEHA and its partners are particularly concerned with the effects of toxics in the environment. Protection from potential exposures is a core component of treatment and prevention.

As public health advocates, the AEHA and our partners are committed to assessment of the potential impacts of piped natural gas in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and any appropriate methods of safeguarding our health and the health of others.

AEHA-NS is the oldest and largest organization in Nova Scotia promoting awareness of environmental health issues. AEHA was instrumental in establishment of the Environmental Medicine Clinic at the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax, now the Nova Scotia Environmental Health Centre - Dalhousie, the first government funded environmental health clinic in the world. This is an internationally renowned centre for scientific/medical research and treatment of environmentally induced illness. Our members serve on it's Patient Advisory Committee.

We participate actively in a wide variety of issues in the area of environmental health, including:

We have rendered assistance to the Langley Review Committee concerning the review and update of scientific articles on environmentally induced illness and chemical sensitivity.

We have produced a manual on less toxic products as part of our educational program.

We promoted and supported education programs by sponsoring seminars, conferences and workshops on environmentally induced illness and chemical sensitivity.

We have invited prominent speakers from clinics and research centres in England, US and Canada.

We have built awareness on healthy school environments including establishing environmental health committees at the School Board level for Halifax, Dartmouth and Halifax County.

We participate in Smoke-Free Nova Scotia.

Professionals in AEHA include doctors, nurses, and other health care practitioners, as well as teachers, architects, chemists and other scientists, environmental health consultants, dentists, psychologists, and engineers.

The high quality and usefulness of the submissions of AEHA and coalition group members to previous environmental assessments and public processes are worth consideration. These efforts have contributed greatly to saving hundreds of millions of dollars to the Atlantic Canadian economy as well as invaluable protection for the environment. All forms of help received in this process are wise investments in our common future that will reap rich dividends.

Many members of AEHA and our Coalition partner groups were contributors to the Environmental Assessment Hearings on the proposed Metropolitan Authority Burnside Waste-To-Energy Incinerator.

AEHA-NS Board member David Wimberly participated as member of the Board of Directors of the "Metro Coalition for Harbour Cleanup", a funded participant in the 1992-1993 Halifax-Dartmouth Wastewater Management System environmental assessment. The Panel Chair, Dr. Shirley Conover, in her closing remarks after the hearings stated: "... under a recently implemented Federal Government program, seven Intervenor groups received funding to prepare and present submissions to the Panel. Five of these groups worked collectively as the Metro Coalition for Harbour Cleanup, as well as submitting as individual organizations on particular occasions ... The content and innovation that characterized these submissions are greatly appreciated by the Panel, and in our view, represent a strong justification for this federal support program. It is worth noting that the Federal Environmental Assessment and Review Office staff judged these submissions to be among the most comprehensive and informative Intervenor submissions seen to date under this program. " Hearings Transcript, Vol. 16, pp. 308-309.

The abbreviated environmental assessment given to the proposed Atlantic Provinces PCB Destruction Program also saw core participation by David Wimberly. Mr. Wimberly acted as the ENGO representative to the official Working Group of this Federal-Provincial project. He was appointed to that role by the combined Environmental Coalitions of all four Atlantic provinces. He also served during that process as Chair of the Atlantic PCB Caucus, with membership from the Environmental Coalitions of all four Atlantic provinces.

Other public processes AEHA and Coalition members have participated in include:

AEHA's efforts over many years to promote the awareness of the need for clean and healthful home, school and working environments, as well as remedies to the existing environments.

AEHA members having served on various Environmental Health Committees of Halifax, Dartmouth and County School Boards, as well as those at many individual schools.

AEHA publication of the quarterly National UPdate, available to members as well as from newsstands to share knowledge of environmental health issues.

AEHA-NS publishes a newsletter on environmental health issues of particular interest locally in Nova Scotia.

AEHA and Coalition members' leadership in the efforts to bring to light, understand and cope with the environmental problems of workplaces.

AEHA members' active participation in the Burnside garbage incinerator environmental assessment.

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