First World War gas mask. Photo © Thom Quine, via Creative Commons and flickr

First World War gas mask. Photo © Thom Quine, via Creative Commons and flickr

The recent tragedy experienced by a Fort McMurray family has roots in century-old events.

This February, an eight-month-old baby and her two-year-old brother died after breathing in a pesticide fumigant. Four other family members required treatment, with one requiring intensive care in Edmonton.

The building where the family lives is infested with bedbugs. During a recent visit to Pakistan, the children’s mother had purchased pesticide tablets to kill the bugs.

The pesticide is phosphine. This insecticide is usually sold as tablets that combine phosphide powder with calcium or aluminum. When the powder encounters moisture or humidity, it releases phosphine gas. It’s one of the most toxic pesticides registered in Canada, where it can be purchased and used only by licensed operators.

When inhaled, the gas irritates the lungs and airway, harms the heart and circulation, and produces severe stomach pains. It also interferes with the central nervous system, much like sarin gas, an outlawed chemical weapon.

Its effects can be immediate and severe, depending on level of exposure.

Phosphine gas wasn’t known 100 years ago. Had it been, it may have been used in the war in Europe.

Known as the chemists’ war, the First World War industrialised production of many new chemicals….

Read the rest of this editorial at the Victoria Times Colonist: Fatal pesticide linked to chemical weapons

S.S. Panama in Panama Canal's Gatun Locks, ~1915. Photo via Richard (rich701), creative commons

S.S. Panama in Panama Canal’s Gatun Locks, ~1915. Photo via Richard (rich701), creative commons and flickr

When the steamship Ancon entered Pacific waters on August 15, 1914, transportation between North America’s east and west coasts changed forever. The Ancon made the journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 70 minutes. The journey normally took months and risked unpredictable weather and currents.

The Ancon’s passage marked the long-anticipated opening of that engineering marvel, the Panama Canal.

From one day to the next, the sea journey from New York to San Francisco became 12,600 kilometres shorter. Steamships carrying goods from this coast to Atlantic markets could—and did—cut months off their journey.

The immediate effect of the canal’s opening on the day-to-day lives of most people living in Victoria and British Columbia, however, turned out to be anti-climatic….

Read the rest of this editorial at the Victoria Times Colonist….