Study finds 'striking' amount of pollution from oil sands

Dirty: Study finds pollution from oil sands as far as 90km away

ORJAN ELLINGVAG

By Luke Johnson & news reports

 12 January 2013 00:07 GMT

A study released this week suggests production of Alberta’s oil sands is polluting air and lakes in the Canadian province at far greater rates than previously thought.

Development over the last several decades has led to “striking” increases in the amount of cancer-causing chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in at least six lakes up to 90 kilometres from oil sands projects, the Calgary Herald reported.

“Industry’s role as a decades-long contributor of PAHs to oil sands lake ecosystems is now clearly evident,” researchers said in a the study published in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A team of scientists at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and Environment Canada examined core samples from…

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