WINDSOR, ONT - Mercury discharges into the Detroit River are causing cancer, amount to "child abuse,'' and are damaging the quality of life in this border city, American environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr. said Sunday.
Kennedy made the comments in announcing at a conference that his Riverkeepers group had launched a Canadian lawsuit against Michigan utility, Detroit Edison, over discharges from one of the company's two power plants in Detroit.
High rates of cancer -- especially of the thyroid -- in Windsor could be traced to the river pollution, Kennedy said.
"That's assault and battery, and worse because you can die from it,'' he said.
"What's the difference if you die from a brain tumour or if you die from a bullet? There's no difference.''
The lawsuit under the Canadian Fisheries Act accuses the utility of illegal discharges of mercury into the Detroit River, Kennedy said.
The son of the late U.S. Senator Bobby Kennedy did not say where or when the suit had been launched.
A spokeswoman from Detroit Edison would not comment on ongoing or pending litigation but said she was baffled to hear about the lawsuit.
Laurie Kessler said Detroit Edison was spending one billion dollars on equipment to reduce mercury emissions by 2010.
She also said the utility is working with the state of Michigan to develop legislation to achieve even further cuts to emissions.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Kennedy said company officials had installed new mercury-scrubbing devices at its Detroit power plants, but removed the equipment at one plant after the Bush administration scrapped a requirement for them.
Kennedy cited statistics from the Centers for Disease Control that about 640,000 children in the United States were exposed to dangerous levels of mercury in the womb.
"Environmental crime is real crime. There are real victims,'' Kennedy said. "If you put mercury or lead into a child, we know that this diminishes IQ.''
Under the Fisheries Act, it is illegal to pollute waterways and Kennedy said any citizen can sue for damages.
"We're basically doing the job that government is supposed to be doing which is to enforce the laws''.
Kennedy said this is the first Canadian suit of its kind but cross-border lawsuits over environmental conditions do have a precedent.
In 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency successfully sued Teck Cominico over chemical discharges into the Columbia River at its lead and zinc smelting plant in Trail, B.C. That suit argued the discharge was creating pollution in neighbouring Washington State.
Kennedy was the headline speaker on the last day of the Rotary World Peace Summit, the fourth such conference over the past year, which attracted 1,000 delegates from around the world. Speakers included Nobel Peace Prize nominee Lloyd Axworthy, and Jordanian United Nations Ambassador Prince Zeid Ra'ad.
Other summits have been held in Kenya, Bulgaria and Turkey.
