Shocked by study, residents want more info on how to stay safe from arsenic released by wildfires

CBC
·2 min read
A wildfire burning near the Ingraham Trail in the N.W.T. in 2023. A recent study found that wildfires near Yellowknife in 2023 released up to 183 tonnes of arsenic. (NWT Fire - image credit)
A wildfire burning near the Ingraham Trail in the N.W.T. in 2023. A recent study found that wildfires near Yellowknife in 2023 released up to 183 tonnes of arsenic. (NWT Fire - image credit)

When Morgan Tsetta learned about the arsenic released from wildfires around Yellowknife, she says she was shocked.

Already concerned about air pollution from inhaling smoke, she said learning that particles of arsenic were in the air gave her more reason to worry.

A recent study published in Environmental Research Letters found fires near Yellowknife in 2023 released between 69 and 183 tonnes of arsenic into the air and water.

Tsetta says it shows the continued impact of Yellowknife's Giant Mine.

"All of the trees, the soil, the land has been contaminated by arsenic — and when that burns, it's a big concern for anybody impacted by abandoned mine sites," she said.

Morgan Tsetta said she was shocked to learn about the arsenic released from wildfires around Yellowknife. (Kate Kyle/CBC)

John B. Zoe, a Tłı̨chǫ citizen and chairperson with Hotıı̀ ts'eeda, an N.W.T.-based research centre supporting culturally competent healthcare, agrees.

"The destruction that we've experienced in mining here for a very long time, it's still continuing," he said.

The study's lead author, Owen Sutton, said that most of the arsenic released is "naturally occurring" from the soil and bedrock. He said the study is a kind of alarm to say that the amount of arsenic would only become more dangerous the closer the fire burned to the mine site.

Environmental toxicologist Jules Blais agreed there is arsenic around Yellowknife but said the arsenic released from the 2023 wildfires came from arsenic trioxide released from Giant before it faced pollution controls in 1951.

Sutton says his team's research leaves a lot of outstanding questions, including where the arsenic went after it was released.

Bobby Drygeese, a member of Yellowknives Dene First Nation, said he's worried about how that could impact the food chain.

"[If] it goes into the berries and the plants, the animals eat the berries  and then we eat the animals and we eat the berries too," Drygeese said. "Plus, if it goes into water, everybody's drinking water, everybody needs water to survive."

John B. Zoe, a Tłı̨chǫ man living in Behchokǫ̀, said the re-release of arsenic into the air and water is something worth learning more about.
John B. Zoe, a Tłı̨chǫ man living in Behchokǫ̀, said the re-release of arsenic into the air and water is something worth learning more about.

John B. Zoe, a Tłı̨chǫ man living in Behchokǫ̀, said the re-release of arsenic into the air and water is something worth learning more about. (Natalie Pressman/CBC)

Zoe and Tsetta say there should be more information for how people can protect themselves from arsenic poisoning.

Zoe said it would help to know if there are areas with high concentrations of arsenic that could be in the animals or plants that harvesters should avoid.

Tsetta says there should also be warnings about how residents can protect themselves if there are arsenic particles in the air.

Sutton says he hopes other researchers and policy makers help to answer some of those questions and better arm residents against the risks of wildfires burning contaminated land.

Latest Stories

  • A 12-year-old boy fatally shoots a black bear mauling his father during a hunt in western Wisconsin

    A 12-year-old boy has shot and killed a wounded black bear as it was mauling his father near their hunting cabin in the thick western Wisconsin woods. Ryan Beierman, 43, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that he was pinned beneath the 200-pound bruin on Sept. 6 when his son, Owen, fired a shot from the boy's hunting rifle. Earlier, he and Owen spotted the bear from a tree stand near Siren, Wisconsin, about 90 miles (144 kilometers) northeast of Minneapolis.

  • "We moved to tiny island with 200 inhabitants - you can only get here twice a day"

    Meet the family who live on an island only accessible twice a day and has just five children in the local school. The Mundys moved to Holy Island in late 2022 as part of a campaign to address the shrinking and aging population. Up to 800,000 people visit the island off the coast of Northumberland each year - but it has a population of less than 200 people. The tide permits crossings twice daily, with the road being underwater the rest of the time thanks to a tide which moves forward by around 40 minutes every day. Andrew Mundy, 40 and his wife, Victoria, 36, have owned the Pilgrims Coffee House & Roastery on the island for 18 years.

  • What Is the Biggest Cat in the World? Top 9 Species in the Wild

    Get ready to unleash your inner wild as we prowl into the heart of the animal kingdom, where the biggest cat in the world roams. And no, we're not talking about Barivel, the Maine coon who holds the record for the longest domestic cat in the world.

  • A new genetic analysis of animals in the Wuhan market in 2019 may help find COVID-19's origin

    LONDON (AP) — Scientists searching for the origins of COVID-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people, an effort they hope could allow them to trace the outbreak back to its source.

  • Coast Guard marine investigators release underwater footage of the Titan submersible wreckage

    A U.S. Coast Guard hearing into the catastrophic implosion of a tourist sub en route to the Titanic wreck has released underwater footage of the stricken experimental vessel in which five people died. (AP Video produced by Rodrique Ngowi.)

  • Latest Atlantic hurricane forecast revealed for the rest of September

    The odds have been released for just how active the remainder of September will be across the Atlantic for tropical activity. Get the details with meteorologist Tyler Hamilton.

  • A bewildered seal found itself in the mouth of a humpback whale

    SEATTLE (AP) — It's a good thing seals aren't on a humpback whale's menu.

  • Flood-hit regions in Central Europe will get billions in EU aid

    WARSAW, Poland (AP) — European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday pledged billions of euros in aid for Central European countries that suffered enormous damage to infrastructure and housing during the massive flooding that has so far claimed 24 lives in the region.

  • Canada's first bitter chill sends cold, snow diving south

    Canada reaches its first -10 degrees of the season more details with meteorologist Amandeep Purewal.

  • Hurricane forecasters eye brewing system in the Caribbean

    The Atlantic hurricane season continues to sputter along and is over halfway done. So far, the number of storms (seven) is slightly below average.

  • Severe storms take aim at northwestern Ontario with a tornado risk Thursday

    Back-to-back storm days have covered much of the Prairies this week, with Thursday's risk taking aim at parts of northwestern Ontario, and the threat for tornadoes on the table. Stay alert to the changing conditions

  • These 34 creatures were recently discovered as new species. Take a look

    From 8-eyed spiders to a new species resembling a “miniature dragon.”

  • Vast France building project sunk by sea level rise fears

    An ambitious housing project in the northwestern French city of Caen has run aground over worries that rising waters driven by climate change could make the area unlivable within the century. Conceived in the early 2010s, the development was to transform a strip of industrial wasteland between the River Orne and the canal linking Caen to the sea into 2,300 homes, as well as tens of thousands of square metres of office space.But the construction "will not happen", said Thibaud Tiercelet, director

  • Scientists Think a Mega-El Niño Helped Spark the ‘Great Dying’

    Over 90 percent of species on Earth perished during the end-Permian mass extinction.

  • ‘Shocking’ loss for endangered red wolves: 5 pups die after father was hit by a car

    The litter of five highly endangered wolves was born in Eastern North Carolina in April. Their father was killed by a car on US 64 in June.

  • 4°C hotter in Paris and 2.2m in the path of flooding: France’s extreme weather only set to get worse

    The report’s authors hope it can act as a roadmap for local authorities to adapt and accelerate the green transition.

  • See the large python captured that helped a Florida man win $10,000

    Florida wildlife officials said the grand prize winner of this year's Florida Python Challenge successfully snagged 20 massive python snakes during the summer hunting competition, earning the $10,000 grand prize.

  • The best 'geographies' for AI data centers: Schneider Electric CEO

    Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the world, but it is also rocking power grids around the world. Schneider Electric (SU.PA, SBGSY) CEO Peter Herweck sits down with Julie Hyman to address the energy demand needs from AI as more companies seek to optimize their data center infrastructures. "If you look at the data centers worldwide today, they use roughly 1.3 to 2% of the global energy. And we anticipate this to double until 2030," Herweck tells Yahoo Finance "So there is quite a need... So it is big, but it is companies like ourselves, we furnish the electrical and the cooling management and data centers. In fact, we're probably the largest in the world in this regard. And go from grid to chip and chip to cool. And it requires to find sustainable ways of doing it." Herweck emphasizes the significant role renewable and non-electric energy will have in filling these gaps as energy wants and consumption climb. "The data center expansion, in particular, when we're talking generative AI, you have more power requirement. And a lot of the companies want to do this in a sustainable way with little CO2. So they go to geographies where there is a lot of power, a lot of land available because you need to have the land and the power usage. So we would see data centers being built in geographies that we haven't seen before to learn those models, be it in Australia, be it in Japan, be it in Singapore, in the Middle East, in countries in Europe that you wouldn't think about..." For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination Overtime. This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

  • 12-year-old son shoots and kills bear mauling his dad’s face

    The pair were on a father-son hunting trip when the attack took place

  • Methane is pitched as a climate villain – could changing how we think about it make it a saviour?

    Abating methane emissions and enhancing atmospheric removal offers an opportunity to rapidly mitigate warming.