Mr. Speaker, last week Health Canada officials released preliminary results of an ongoing study on air pollution and children's respiratory health. The initial results from the Windsor children's respiratory health study seem to indicate what to date no other more detailed study has, that there is no link between traffic emissions and our children's health.
Numerous studies, including those conducted by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and the United States National Center for Environmental Health, have concluded that there are in fact a variety of health related problems for children exposed to ground level air pollution. These studies have examined border areas in the U.S., Mexico and Canada where there are similar problems of truck traffic.
It has been clearly and scientifically demonstrated that children living in areas with high levels of truck traffic are at an increased risk of developing asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory problems.
Before we rush to conclude that truck traffic in the Windsor-Detroit area has no impact on our children's health, we should look carefully at the process of this study and wait for the full findings due out in the spring of 2007.