These pollutants are also going into the lungs and food supply of the animals and other wildlife in this region. The impact of poor air quality is reflected, in dramatic fashion, in health and hospital statistics. For example, twenty percent of summer respiratory admissions in Southern Ontario are pollution-related. In Toronto in 1994 the last year for which there are full figures there were about 40 days when air quality was only moderate or poor. And a full 15 per cent of infant respiratory admissions are associated with ozone-sulphate pollution.
Automobile emissions are the environmental equivalent of chain smoking in the home.
It hurts everybody in the house whether they smoke or not. We all have to breathe. People should not be forced to play Russian roulette with their health whenever they step outside their front door. A major part of the answer is cleaner vehicles and cleaner fuels. That is what this discussion is all about, and that is what my department is working on.