East Hamilton residents worry after unidentified soot covers neighbourhoods, families

People in parts of Hamilton are worried about their health and they want an explanation for the black, oily soot that’s been falling from the sky into their neighbourhoods.

Residents are wondering if it is a health hazard, if it’s carcinogenic, what the substance is doing to their kids, and why the soot has been coating their houses, yards and cars.

Laura LaChance says she’s a clean freak who washes her house and her back deck every day, and these days this is what she gets saying, “it smears. It doesn’t wipe — it’s horrible.”

She says in recent days the black soot has been covering everything — it sticks to cleaning cloths, as she learned after cleaning one of the paws on her dogs.

She’s worried about her grandchildren playing here.

“I’m concerned about short-term effects, long-term effects,” said LaChance. “It’s affecting my dogs, it’s affecting my grandchildren, it’s affecting anybody who walks the street.”

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She doesn’t know what the soot is, but says they shouldn’t be breathing it.

“Tell us what we’ve been breathing in,” said LaChance. “Like, I love Hamilton — I was born and raised here, but this is unacceptable.”

LaChance lives in north Hamilton’s lower city, not far from the heavy industrial area, but people on the east Mountain say they’re getting the same oily soot.

“So I can just take my hand and run it over the top of the vehicle here, and that’s the kind of residue that you’re getting,” said Phil Hagens, who lives on Hamilton’s east Mountain, “and it doesn’t wipe off — it’s oily. So even if I wash my hands, it’s still there.”

Hagens says his kids were tracking it on their shoes.

He says he’s never seen this kind of sooty fallout in the area before, but says it follows a wind blowing onto the mountain from the industrial area.

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“We had a north breeze, I would say probably three or four days ago, that pushed up here with all the crazy weather that we’ve been having and that’s really when we noticed it,” said Hagens.

Officials say it hasn’t been determined where the soot is coming from, but residents shared a photo showing a cloud blowing over the neighbourhood from the industrial area this week.

The Ministry of the Environment tells CHCH News its Spills Action Centre has sent people to the area to “conduct field observations, collect samples … and follow up” reports, but “a source (of the soot) has not been determined, and the material has not yet been identified.”

The office of local city councillor Tammy Hwang says they’re trying to find out what’s being done about the soot, reflecting the fears of residents.

“My biggest concern is the fact that people are breathing this in,” said Hagens. “My children are breathing in this compound and that presents a potential health concern for them, for my pets, for my children, for all of us.”

There is no word on what’s in the soot.

Counc. Hwang’s office says a previous report on soot in the city found it mostly came from coal and coke. They say they’re doing everything they can to stop the soot.

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