Military fretted over fumes from Iqaluit's 'dumpcano'

The military fretted over fumes coming off Iqaluit'snotorious dump fire during this summer's Arctic training exercise,new documents show.

Personnel deployed to Nunavut's capital for Operation Nanookstayed near the four-storey pile of burning trash known locally asthe "dumpcano" after the city's fire chief compared it to avolcano of garbage.

• TIMELINE: A brief history of Iqaluit's 4-month-long dump fire
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Plumes of smoke rose from the smouldering heap for almost fourmonths until firefighters finally doused it in September.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access toInformation Act show the military had jitters about putting itspeople so close to the dump fire and its nostril-searing smoke.

So it tested the air and soil around the barracks and hangarswhere personnel would stay for the operation. Those tests showedminimal risk to personnel.

"To date, the data collected has shown that most ambient airpollution concentrations ... have been low," says a notice from theforce health protection directorate.

"However, the results indicate that the average levels ofdioxins and furans continue to exceed the ambient air qualitystandard set by Ontario."

The province's standard is "considered to be veryconservative," the directorate added, and it deemed the overall
risk of dioxins and furans chemicals produced by burning garbage,forest fires and smoking tobacco to be low.

Nor did the military anticipate anyone would come away from theoperation with anything more serious than a scratchy throat orirritated eyes from all the smoke.

As a precaution, the Canadian Armed Forces chose not to deploypregnant women and people with lung disease or asthma to Nunavut forOperation Nanook.

The force health protection directorate also suggested havinganother place for personnel to stay as a back-up in case the dumpfire flared up or the smoke started to bother people.

There was a good chance of that happening. Nunatsiaq Newsreported that the area's prevailing winds made the spot especiallysmoky.

The newspaper reported that city councillors rejected a proposalto use a spot along the Road to Nowhere which winds out of Iqaluitbefore abruptly ending as a fall-back because it's a favouredplace for swimming and camping. However, they agreed to look atother locations.

It seems no one was the worse for wear after the operation.

John MacLennan, national president of the Union of NationalDefence Employees, said he hadn't heard of anyone having healthproblems from smoke inhalation.

The military did not immediately provide answers to questionsabout the garbage fire.