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Hi,
The questions below were sent to all three NS political parties. It was
composed collaboratively with the groups that are members of the NSCES.
I believe that you can make good use of this by forwarding it to your
local candidates and requesting they fill it out and return it both to
you and to me (for the Coalition) and that they encourage one to be
filled out on behalf of the party as a whole and
returned to me at ag487@chebucto.ns.ca
To persons with environmental illness/multiple chemical sensitivity these
issues are literally life & death, sickness and health.
I suggests that you will find this a good way to get a better idea about
how to vote.
Please contact me if you have questions.
David Wimberly
ag487@chebucto.ns.ca
Halifax, Nova Scotia
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/6847/
"Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo" Virgil
(If heaven I cannot bend, then hell I'll stir.)
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Nova Scotia Coalition on Environmental Sensitivity
6095 Coburg Rd., Apt. 905
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4K1
429-6309, fax: 429-2308
March 13, 1998
Attention:
Premier Russell MacLellan and Liberal party candidates
MLA Robert Chisholm and New Democratic party candidates
MLA John Hamm and Conservative party candidates
Dear Nova Scotia party leaders and party candidates:
All three political parties have publicly made a commitment to improving
Nova Scotia's health care and they have made it a leading priority in
this election. To us, the important questions are: exactly how and when.
For example, focusing on expensive high-tech equipment may divert
attention and scarce resources from where help can be most effective,
namely basic care, prevention, and education. Clean air, clean food and
clean water are the foundations of improved health for the vast majority
of those affected by Environmental Illness/Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
(EI/MCS).
In the field of EI/MCS we have particularly observed erosion of basic
services and support such as comprehensive education, effective
prevention, and availability and variety of treatments. Three to five
percent of the population are strongly affected and thirty percent or
more are somewhat affected by EI/MCS and the numbers keep increasing.
Surely you know of friends, colleagues, and neighbours who are affected.
Decisive action must be taken to halt the increase of this illness and to
provide help for those already ill.
This questionnaire is being submitted so we can provide information to
the people of NS to allow them to judge the specifics of your generalized
promises to improve NS health care.
Our request is for an answer we can release from each party leader and
each party as a whole. But we also request that you distribute this
questionnaire to each of your candidates so they can all become more
familiar with our issues, questions and needs. We also welcome their
individual replies.
Please answer our questions with a yes or no and add any comments you
wish in the space afterwards. We will release the results of this
questionnaire on Thursday, March 19, 1998. So please, we must have your
written response no later than noon on Wednesday March 18.
The specifics of your answer matter a great deal to us in our preparation
for the election.
Please respond via fax to 429-2308 or e-mail to ag487@chebucto.ns.ca.
Thank you.
QUESTIONS:
1. HOME CARE.
Home care proposals have not included those with Environmental
Illness/Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Home care is frequently the best
and most appropriate care available for people with EI/MCS. Many medical
costs to both the patient and MSI would be avoided and much hardship
could be alleviated with home care appropriate to EI/MCS.
If elected, will you pledge to extend effective home care to those with
EI/MCS within three months or during the first sitting of the
legislature? Yes ________ No_________
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. INDOOR AIR QUALITY REGULATION
Since the Westray tragedy in May 1992, the last two governments committed
themselves to undertaking a comprehensive review of occupational health
and safety in this province. In particular, this review focussed on
needed changes to existing occupational health and safety legislation
including the possibility of a new regulation on indoor air quality in
non-industrial workplaces. After two years of intense efforts, the joint
labour-management Working Group on Indoor Air Quality is close to
finalizing this new regulation. However, the Department of Labour has yet
to convene a meeting of the Working Group since October ro review a
completely revised version of the regulation.
For people with environmental sensitivities, the passing of this
new regulation is especially urgent. It could greatly help to prevent
them from being exposed to environmental stressors that adversely affect
their health. These regulations would also help prevent others from
becoming environmentally sensitive.
Would your party as government commit to finalizing and implementing an
indoor air quality regulation based on the efforts of the Working Group,
and to providing adequate resources for public education and enforcement
related to this regulation, within a year of taking office?
Yes ________ No_________
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. SCHOOLS: Products and Practices
Products, practices and the condition of school buildings all impact on
School children's health and ability to learn. School boards are
responsible to provide a safe learning environment so that children can
learn effectively and maintain their health and well being. With the
help of several government departments
progress is being made, but there is still much to be done. Many schools
with significant Indoor Air Quality problems were not identified by the
school boards in the recent Capital Construction Project.
Will your government take immediate and continuous action to ensure all
school boards identify and correct any further school Indoor Air Quality
problems? Yes_______ No_______
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
Will your government also take the financial steps necessary to ensure
that ALL of the province's school children spend their days in healthy
buildings? Yes_______ No______
Action Plan:_________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. PESTICIDES
By this time of year, most of us are looking forward with great
anticipation to the warmth, light, and new growth of the spring and
summer months. However, for some it is an anticipation tinged with
dread, the time of pesticide spraying and other chemical treatment of
lawns. We are all at risk from the effects of these chemicals, but for
some even minute exposure from the drift of these toxic chemicals is
life-threatening. Evacuation for 3-7 days, whether planned or
unpredictable, many times in a summer should not be part of anyone's
normal life. Children should be safe from toxic chemical exposure as
they walk to and from school. Will your party take steps to insure that
we and our children are protected from these dangerous and poorly
regulated chemicals, and will your party take steps to protect the most
vulnerable so that they can be safe in their own homes?
Yes ________ No_________
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. SABLE GAS
In the largest clinical study of Environmental Illness/Multiple Chemical
Sensitivity ever (of 47,000 patients), natural gas was "the most
important source of indoor air pollution responsible for generating
illness." Outdoor uses such as generating electricity do not harm those
with EI/MCS, but all uses indoors in buildings people inhabit will cause
harm. Mere ventilation has proven ineffective due to the inevitable
permeation of buildings and entire neighbourhoods by this extremely
volatile natural gas, its contaminants, its toxic additives, and its
inevitable by-products of combustion. This is an extremely important
property of natural gas use that has been ignored or suppressed outside
the community of doctors and patients with EI/MCS. A great deal of harm
and cost can be avoided by giving careful attention to this fact now.
With the impending development of the Sable gas reserves, will you as our
future legislators undertake to keep natural gas service out of our
neighbourhoods where people live, such as homes, schools, hospitals and
libraries, and public venues such as offices, malls, theatres and grocery
stores, in order to protect those who are already chemically sensitive
and to protect others from becoming sensitive to this gas?
Yes ________ No_______
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. PARTNERING/CONSENSUS BUILDING
Patients and Nova Scotia Environmental Health Centre staff have been
meeting to discuss a Partnering
and Consensus Building process to explore ways to resolve the many issues
and opportunities in providing comprehensive and effective treatment,
education, protection and research in this field for the benefit of Nova
Scotian citizens. To be effective, this process requires the
wholehearted participation and commitment of all stakeholders, including
the provincial government.
If elected, will you pledge an empowered representative to this
partnering/consensus building process?
Yes ________ No_________
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. WAITING LIST
Given that many hundreds, if not thousands, of Nova Scotians are
suffering from and sometimes incapacitated by Environmental Illness; and
many have been on the waiting list for the NSEHC for years with little
chance of ever being treated; and these people have been forced to spend
thousands of dollars on treatments; what will your government do to
ensure access to appropriate, effective affordable treatment for these
people?
____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________
Will your government take steps to ensure that the treatments for
Environmental Illness are covered by MSI, as are treatments for cancer,
diabetes, pneumonia, broken limbs, etc.?
Yes ________ No_________
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. CONTRACT MANDATE FOR NS ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH CLINIC
A NS Department of Health White Paper of 1992 outlines the three armed
mandate of treatment, education and research for the NSEHC. The
subsequent contract for the NSEHC was kept secret from interested
parties, namely patients, potential patients, family physicians and the
public. Only through the Freedom of Information Act, have we recently
obtained a copy of this contract and confirmed our suspicions that the
NSEHC is specifically mandated for research only. This directly
contravenes the Dept. of Health's own recommendation in the White Paper.
As a consequence, there are numerous concerns from many quarters
including from many patients whose needs are no longer being met.
Patients have been cut off from previously successful treatments. Over
1200 people on the waiting list face a 4 -or more- year waiting list to
be seen. After years on the waiting list, some have been told they will
never be seen even although they suffer daily from environmental illness.
Will your party, if it comes to power, restore the NSEHC's three armed
mandate 1) to provide Standard Medical Environmental Illness treatments,
2) to provide comprehensive public and individual education, and
3) to perform clinical research?
Yes ________ No_________
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. LANGLEY REPORT
The Report of the Advisory Committee on Environmental Hypersensitivity
submitted to the Deputy Minister of Health, June 24,1997, has been made
public and circulated. There have been tremendous criticisms about the
Report, especially about the "Clinical Guidelines for the Management of
Environmental Hypersensitivity for NS Physicians." These guidelines are
utterly inadequate, a violation of the Hippocratic Oath for Physicians,
and potentially very dangerous for people with environmental illness.
Should your political party be elected would you ensure that the Langley
Report is rejected, including the conclusions and recommendations, and a
new set of guidelines on environmental illness for NS Physicians be
prepared consistent with the American Association of Environmental
Medicine Treatments, and that these be distributed within the three month
period after your election?
Yes ________ No_________
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. BERESFORD REPORT
The Report on Environmental Hypersensitivity in Response to the Report of
the Advisory Committee to the Minister of Health, January 5,1998,
submitted by Dr Patricia Beresford has been made public and circulated.
This is an excellent, comprehensive and accurate report of benefit to
those with, or at risk of, environmental illness.
Should your political party be elected would you study and adopt the Dr.
Beresford Report and begin to implement its recommendations within the
three month period after your election?
Yes ________ No_________
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
11. CAMP HILL HOSPITAL REPORT
The Report of the Evaluation of the Camp Hill Hospital Staff Affected by
the Veterans Memorial Building Syndrome was prepared for the Department
of Health jointly by the Nova Scotia Environmental Medicine Clinic and
the Environmental Health Center-Dallas, Texas, in May, 1993. This
document was never released or implemented, consequently many victims of
the Camp Hill Hospital Incident have not received the recommended treatments.
Should your political party be elected would you ensure that this Report
is immediately made public and quickly implemented?
Yes ______ No______
Comments? ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Please answer our questions with a yes or no and add any comments you
wish in the space afterwards. We will release the results of this
questionnaire on Thursday, March 19, 1998. So please, we must have your
written response no later than noon on Wednesday March 18.
The specifics of your answer matter a great deal to us in our preparation
for the election.
Please respond via fax to 429-2308 or e-mail to ag487@chebucto.ns.ca.
Thank you.
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