Dear Editor:
Three weeks and $30,000 later, we are coming to the end of cleaning the buildings of our strata complex. One technician advised the soiled wood shingles that had to be sanded to be cleaned, were embedded with diesel soot.
The naming of our address after a war hero, that is, “Smokey Smith,” has taken on a whole new meaning. I Googled heavy hydrocarbons and sulfuric acid, which make up diesel particulate matter, and their effects on human health are not fully understood, despite considerable research.
The provincial government, recognizing that diesel emissions, apart from cardiac and respiratory disease, are also responsible for approximately 67 per cent of the lifetime cancer risk from air pollution in Metro Vancouver, instigated the diesel retrofit requirement – the diesel oxidation catalyst filter. Will this “DOC” filter save us from harm? Has there been any follow-up to the recommendations from the air quality study of 2009 (main focus was Front Street) to sample on a more regular basis other areas of New Westminster?
What will be the impact of reopening the Braid Street bridge to United Boulevard truck traffic?
My questions and investigations continue, and so should yours.
Nancy Milliken, via email
