Community health

During the 1930s to the 1950s, control of contaminated building materials and soils was less stringent than the standards that are applied today. As a result, Port Hope has a legacy of low-level radioactive waste. The federal government has accepted responsibility for this legacy issue and has committed to addressing the situation through the Port Hope Area Initiative.

Over the last 20 years or so, there have been at least 10 health studies done that are either specific to the Port Hope area or included Port Hope as part of a larger research effort. Specifically, because of community interest in the impact of historic and current nuclear operations in Port Hope, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission engaged Health Canada to conduct studies into cancer incidence and cancer mortality rates in the community. The results from Health Canada’s study “Cancer Incidence in Port Hope: 1971 – 1996” showed that compared to cancer incidence in the general population of Ontario, there was no overall evidence for an increased elevation of cancer in Port Hope. A second Health Canada report, “Cancer and General Mortality in Port Hope: 1956 – 1997” found that “overall cancer mortality rates in the town of Port Hope are comparable to rates throughout the Province of Ontario.”

Health Research

Cameco is making arrangements to have copies of all of the following health studies available at the Port Hope Library.

Cancer Incidence in Port Hope: 1971 – 1996, By Environmental Risk Assessment and Case Surveillance Division Cancer Bureau, Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, Health Canada, published August 2000.

Cancer and General Mortality in Port Hope: 1956 – 1997, By Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Publication and Public health Branch, Health Canada, published June 2002.

Mortality Experience Among Workers in the Uranium Industry*:  R.C. Nair, J.D. Abbatt, G.R. Howe, H.B. Newcombe, S.E. Frost |University of Ottawa,  Eldorado Resources Limited, National Cancer Institute of Canada.

Port Hope Harbour Area of Concern:  Health Data and Statistics for the Population of the Region (1986 – 1992).  A Technical Report for the RAP community, Great Lakes Health Effects Program, Environmental Health Effects Division, Health Protection Branch, Health Canada.

Radiation and Health in Durham Region, Durham Region Health Department, November 1996.

McLaughlin, J.F., Anderson, T.W., Clarke, E.A., King, W., Occupational Exposure of Fathers to Ionizing Radiation and the Risk of Leukemia in Offspring:  A Case Control Study, AECB INFO-0424, 1992.

Clarke, E.A., McLaughlin, J., Anderson, T.W., Childhood Leukemia Around Canadian Nuclear Facilities – Phase I, AECB Report INFO-030-1, 1989.

Kusiak, R., Howe, P.J., Standardized Mortality Ratios in Selected Urban Areas in Ontario between 1954 and 1978, Ontario Ministry of Labour, 1984.

Steele, R., Lees, R.E.M., Roberts, J.H., Study of the Health Effects of Low-Level Exposure to Environmental Radiation Contamination in Port Hope, Ontario, June 1984.

Ecosystems Consulting Inc., Health Studies, prepared for the Siting Task Force, STF Tech. Bib. 360, September 1994.

To the Point – Cancer in the HKPR District, Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit, Printed October 2005.

^*Study is currently being updated