Canada's Air Quality
| Air Quality in Canada Improving According to New Study |
| Contact(s): |
| Jeremy Brown, Policy Analyst |
| The Fraser Institute, Tel (604) 688-0221, ext 595 |
| Email: jeremyb@fraserinstitute.ca |
| Click here for the complete publication. |
| Release Date: November 22, 2005 |
| Vancouver, BC - Air quality in Canada has been improving steadily for the past three decades, according to The State of Urban Air in Canada, released today by The Fraser Institute. The greatest success story has been a 94 percent reduction in the levels of ambient lead since 1974. “While environmental alarmists continue to publish a steady stream of reports claiming worsening air quality, the data show quite clearly that the reality of environmental progress is overwhelmingly positive,” said Jeremy Brown, author of the study and policy analyst at the Institute. “Air quality is, in fact, improving dramatically in the developed world as improvements in technology, higher incomes, and democratic systems have created an ever-increasing ability to protect the environment.” Citizens continue to be concerned about the quality of the air that they breathe. As public awareness about the environment has grown, so too has concern about issues such as urban smog and industrial emissions and how these issues affect the health of our population. This new study uses Environment Canada’s data to examine the real state of environmental progress. The paper studies the underlying pollutants that degrade air quality and provides an analysis of these pollutants to illustrate trends in air quality across Canada and North America. Some examples: • In Toronto, the concentration of nitrogen dioxide has decreased 52 percent and sulfur dioxide by 86 percent since 1974. • In Montreal, the concentration of total particulate matter has decreased 72 percent and sulfur dioxide by 90 percent since 1974. • In Vancouver, the concentration of carbon monoxide has decreased 76 percent and total particulate matter by 84 percent since 1974. “Since we published our first Environmental Indicators report in 1997 what we have found is a story of optimism that is unknown to many Canadians,” Brown noted. “One of the most far-reaching improvements in Canada’s environment over the last 25 to 27 years is the increasing quality of the air Canadians breathe." Among the study’s key findings: • Ambient levels of sulphur dioxide, a pollutant produced by burning coal and oil, which can cause breathing problems and aggravation of respiratory disease, decreased 72.2 percent from 1974 and 2001. • Ambient levels of particulate matter, which can irritate lung tissue and reduce visibility in the air, decreased 50.7 percent from 1974 to 1999. • Improvements in technology have resulted in an 82.6 percent decrease in ambient levels of carbon monoxide from 1974 to 2001 despite the fact that there has been a 30 percent increase in total vehicle registrations over the same period. • Ambient lead levels fell 94 percent in Canada from 1974 to 1998, a concentration so low that it no longer needed measuring, and resources were diverted from lead measurement to other activities. • Nitrogen dioxide, a highly reactive gas emitted by both natural and industrial activities, combines with volatile organic compounds to produce ozone, considered a precursor to smog. Canadian ambient levels of nitrogen dioxide decreased 34.4 percent from 1974 to 2001. “Clearly, claims of deteriorating air quality and claims that air quality is harming Canadians are misleading at best. Environment Canada’s own data show that air quality has been improving in Canada over time, and that these improvements have not been small. The air we breathe is far cleaner now than it was just two decades ago,” Brown concluded. This is not to say the news is all good—ground-level ozone, for reasons not fully understood, is increasing despite decreases in precursor chemicals—but clearly, the trends in air quality have been astonishingly good. Charts and figures on air quality in major Canadian cities are available in the study. |
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| Established in 1974, The Fraser Institute is an independent public policy |
| organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto. |