Item - 2012.PE11.2

The Board of Health, on February 27, 2012, amongst other things, forwarded the report (February 10, 2012) from the Medical Officer of Health on the Cumulative Health Impact Assessment of Air Quality in Wards 30 and 32 to the Parks and Environment Committee for their consideration and action.

In 2005 the Toronto Board of Health requested that the City of Toronto examine the air quality impact of emissions from all sources of air pollution that affect South Riverdale and The Beaches.  The Toronto Environment Office retained Golder Associates to prepare a comprehensive analysis of air quality in Wards 30 and 32, known as the "Golder Report".

The Golder Report identified that the overall air quality issues in Wards 30 and 32 are principally caused by numerous small sources (such as vehicles, smaller industrial sources, commercial sources and residential furnaces), but there are still some localized poor air quality 'hot spots' that are caused by large industrial sources.  In addition, air quality is impacted from pollution sources in the United States and Ontario (outside of Toronto).

Toronto Public Health (TPH) used the estimates from the modelling to conduct a health assessment of the findings to respond to the community's interest in understanding cumulative impacts from multiple pollutants.

The health assessment found that most of the 30 air contaminants selected for this study, mainly the non-carcinogenic ones, occur below levels of concern to health in Wards 30 and 32 even when the combined exposure is taken into account.  However, it is possible that some carcinogens are present at levels above the one in one million excess cancer risk benchmark. Other pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen dioxides, and particulate matter are also found at levels that are known to have an adverse impact on health.  These pollutants are produced during combustion of fuels, for example, in vehicles and in furnaces for space heating. For many substances of concern, such as benzene, 1,3- butadiene, and nitrogen dioxides, the transportation sector is an import source of locally generated emissions.  Therefore, in addition to addressing emissions from industrial and commercial facilities, it is important to continue efforts to reduce air pollution from both on and off-road transportation sources.

As requested by the Parks and Environment Committee, this report forwards the report Local Air Quality Study of Ward 30 and Ward 32 by the Deputy City Manager, Cluster B, and makes recommendations that build upon those of the original report.