A group of N.W.T. doctors, lawyers and water rights experts say treated oil sands tailings cannot be released without complete evidence and studies on downstream health impacts of pollutants.
In a Sept. 15 article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), five medical doctors, two PhDs, a lawyer and Denesuline Elder François Paulette urged the health community to make sure the future findings of Fort Chipewyan's $12 million community-led health study are implemented.
"We've seen a complete lack of effort and funding to be able to adequately long-term monitor the health impacts. It's never been done," said Nicole Redvers, associate professor and director of Indigenous Planetary Health at Western University and co-author of the CMAJ article.
Redvers said Fort Chipewyan's federally-funded health impacts study is only getting started and is the first of its kind here.
Downstream communities have demanded long-term independent monitoring on oil sands health impacts, yet it remains "a very under-researched area," she said.
Industry operators asked Canada to regulate and permit the release of treated tailings water. By the end of this year, a federalworking group is expected to advise the federal environment minister on alternatives to releasing treated effluent and a draft regulatory framework.
The authors say that work is proceeding without the necessary evidence.
If permitted, treated tailings water would be discharged into the Athabasca River, which flows into Great Slave Lake and up the Mackenzie River before spilling out into the Arctic Ocean.
Between 2000 and 2018, there were 87 articles published on the health effects of resource extraction. Of those, just three looked at communities exposed to oil sands emissions, Redvers said.
Most of the studies look at toxic exposures as isolated incidents, but don't evaluate how cumulative exposures affect the ecological, social and cultural determinants of health, the authors state in the report.
In 2006, Dr. John O'Connor faced the threat of losing his medical license afterraising public alarm over cancer among residents of Fort Chipewyan, downstream from the oil sands.
The Alberta Cancer Board later found higher than usual levels of overall cancers of the blood, lymphatic system, bile ducts and soft tissues. It cautioned the findings could be explained by chance, increased detection or actual increased risk, the authors state.
"For me, a lack of evidence available doesn't necessarily point to there being no problem at all," Redvers said.
She said scientific studies overlook traditional knowledge about animals and even observations by traditional midwives that pregnant women's placentas are thinning.
The failure to get health impact studies is rooted in environmental racism, she said, where the economic benefits of many are prioritized over the health impacts borne by smaller, predominantly Indigenous communities.
Reviews of available data found discrepancies in industry reported emissions. She said 2024 aircraft survey results published in the journal Science found 20 to 64 times more pollutants surrounding oil sands facilities than industry reports.
"I don't think industry-backed research, that is not independent, is going to lead the studies that communities will trust," she said.
Communities are seeking their own studies because they don't trust industry science, especially after they were not informed of a tailings leak into their waters.
A 2014 study by the Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation found elevated contaminants in muskrat, ducks and moose. Community members now consume fewer traditional foods, the authors said.
Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz declined CBC News' request for an interview.
In an email, Schulz's press secretary Ryan Fournier, said Alberta takes environmental protection seriously and does "more environmental monitoring than any government in Alberta's history."
Alberta's Oil Sands Monitoring Program continuously monitors 40 air quality and 100 water monitoring stations, he said.
Alberta's energy regulator estimated in 2023 there were 1.4 billion cubic metres of fluid tailings and 400 million cubic metres of contaminated water in tailings ponds.
To visualize the scale of these fluid tailings, 240 West Edmonton Malls could fit inside, a 2022 Canadian Parks and Wilderness Association report states.
Courtney Howard, an emergency physician in Yellowknife and chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, said small population sizes makes it harder for scientists to get useable data.
Any cost-benefit analysis of oil sands expansion should factor in externalized costs, like cancers, loss of family, and increased medical travel costs for remote communities, she said.
"The last thing we want to do is allow haphazard science to half-inform a discussion that is very heavily influenced by industry and land us in a place where we don't have options left."