There’s something wrong with the air and water in Saint John. I don’t think I noticed when I was living here. Perhaps it was better back then. Aside from a few short visits over the past 15 years I’ve been living elsewhere. Elsewhere has usually been blue collar or industrial cities. Larger than Saint John and without the surrounding Bay of Fundy to wash in ocean air. I’m surprised there’s such a significant difference.

The water pouring out of taps is a distinct yellow. It doesn’t smell like sulfur (as the water in Borden did) but it’s definitely not the clear colour I’m used to bathing in. It’s bad enough that I want to brush my teeth with bottled water. I’m not too impressed with it’s impact on my hair and skin.

I’ve also been experiencing bloody noses for the past few days. I can’t recall the last time I had a bloody nose simply from breathing! My entire nasal cavity seems to be one big ache. Of course, the sinuses are also acting up. Heaping joy upon joy on this quickly devolving mouth breather. Not meant in a derogatory way of course. I’m just experiencing a large amount of difficulty breathing through my nose today.

When K and I were at dinner on Saturday – we had a fabulous time thank ye very much – we spent a bit of time talking about environmental impacts on health. Nearly every family I know in this city has been touched with some form of illness or cancer. In the neighbourhood I grew up in, 3 families (that I am aware of) have lost someone to cancer. Anther 4 families are currently battling or are in remission from cancer. Those are only the ones I know about. No one has the same form. Despite it’s doubling (perhaps tripling) in size over the past decade, my childhood neighbourhood consisted of one street and one side street. I’m not counting any of the new houses or streets that didn’t exist while I was growing up. No idea what the incidence of illness is there.

I dread to think what the incidence rate might be a few miles to the west in Champlain Heights. Where we occasionally woke up to strange black powders on our homes and cars; they often found odd powdery residues near (or in if they left their windows open) their premises. I remember residents battling to have more controls put in place to clean up the refineries and mills. Hoping it would help clean up the air and environment. I’m unsure as to the degree in which they may have experienced success.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.