Jeffrey Brook, a University of Toronto expert in air quality and health, spent nearly a year reviewing data from Canada’s Joint Oil Sands Monitoring (JOSM) program.
Jeffrey Brook, a University of Toronto expert in air quality and health, spent nearly a year reviewing data from Canada’s Joint Oil Sands Monitoring (JOSM) program, which aims to quantify and assess the short and long-term impact of Alberta’s oil sands operations by monitoring air quality, water contamination and biodiversity disturbances.
His findings, recently published in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, suggested some air contaminants are not well quantified and that emissions levels for a range of air contaminants – including greenhouse gases – are underestimated.
Organic toxins, known as polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs), are also an environmental concern.
“They are in the air, water and the biota and there is evidence that some of the negative changes in the health of some of the species studied are associated with PACs,” says Brook (left), who is an assistant professor in U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
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