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Re: Report to highlight drop in pollutants – Letter to the Editor, Globe and Mail, February 15, 2013

February 15, 2013
The Editors
The Globe and Mail
444 Front St.
Toronto, Ontario
Dear Sir/Madam
Re: Report to highlight drop in pollutants (February 15).  While reported emissions of pollutants in Canada may be down, these trends have nothing to do with anything the current government has done in relation to these substances  - which is precisely nothing.  Structural economic change, such as the decline of manufacturing activities in Ontario are likely a much bigger factor. Other key contributors to the long-term declines are things done long ago - acid rain control in the 1980s, which targetted sulphur dioxide, and new water pollution regulations on the pulp and paper sector adopted in the early 1990s aimed at dramatically reducing discharges of dioxins, furans and a range of other pollutants.
Yours sincerely,

Mark S. Winfield, Ph.D. Associate Professor