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economist suntribune news saturday aug 312002 firefighters go to warvuell not reallyfor a good caose members of crew 1 at markham fire department station 91 left picture bruce burley tom hazlewood jim houston phil harrison and dave nobert are preparing to take on the calendar boys chris tamaya right picture chris lance and ryan best to see who can raise the most money at this years grandmas run for the markhaven foundation the 5- km event is saturday sept 7 starting 930 am at the corner of parkway avenue and paramount road in markham village both firefighting teams are accepting pledges and participants in the run are still welcome call 9054724779 for more information mp plans summit to discuss kyoto accord with local residents by mike adler staff writer oak ridges mp bryon wilfert will host a summit on the kyoto accord in york region this fall by the time that oct 11 meet ing begins canada may finally commit to sign kyoto a 1997 pro tocol to fight global warming prime minister jean chretien is scheduled to speak monday at the earth summit in johannesburg amid speculation he may announce canada will ratify the accord a poll released this week sug gests 76 per cent of canadians would support such an announcement this week mr wilfert whose riding includes whitchurch- stouffville and the northern half of markham said the federal gov ernment has been convinced by scientific evidence that human activity is affecting the worlds cli mate but he said the government wants to avoid placing an unfair burden on any one area of the country the mp said it must also be mindful of canadas strong eco nomic ties with the united states which refuses to ratify kyoto were working with all key stakeholders to make a plan that is workable york north mp karen kraft sloan thinks canada should sign the accord and helped draft a let ter supporting ratification that cir culated last week and was signed by 96 mps the prime minister has indi cated that he would like to ratify kyoto so its certainly anybodys guess as to when hes going to make that statement she said mr wilfert said his summit in richmond hill will focus on air pollution and that he will hand the results over to environment minister david anderson although he refused to say whether he supports ratification i dont want to look like im prejudging he explained mr wilfert noted canadians are see ing the effect of climate change including rising sea levels and melting permafrost and there will be consequences if canada does not sign kyoto if we dont do it were going to have a problem mr wilfert said if canada signs the accord it will agree to cut its greenhouse- gas emissions to five per cent less than levels the country produced in 1990 ten york kids infected with walkerton e coli bacteria by roger varley staff writer municipal water systems have been ruled out as the cause after 1 0 york region children became infected with the deadly e coli bac terial strain in the past three weeks but york region health services say the unusual spike in e coli 0157h7 the same bacteria that killed seven people in walkerton in may 2000 is not cause for concern we dont know how its spread ing yet but i want to rule out water said bill mindell director of infec tious disease control all victims are on municipal water systems but were investigat ing possible persontoperson con tact its likely a food source municipal water systems are not suspected because of the regular testing they undergo mr mindell would not say if the most recent cases six of the 10 have been identified in the last week are clustered in any partic ular area lets just say its york region for now he said were not sure what exactly is happening were investi gating if there are similarities in the infections but information is changing rapidly in the middle of the investigation the infected children are between the ages of two and 11 of the 10 cases eight have been con firmed as e coli 0157h7 and results are pending on the remaining two cases mr mindell said four of the children have made complete recoveries one remains in hospital and one still has diarrhea mr mindell said parents of two of the children have not yet been con tacted with the laboratory reports he said health services investi gators are attempting to trace the food history of all 10 victims and find out where they have visited were asking for dna finger printing on each case to see if theyre linked he said mr mindell said there are pre cautions residents can take to guard against e coli infection washing of hands especially for small children is recommended after bathroom use caution should be taken in cooking hamburger and people should make sure there is no cross contamination by preparing differ ent foods on the same work surface mr mindell said york residents shouldnt be concerned about using swimming pools or beaches beaches are all tested and if theyre not posted theyre safe he said york region doctors are being notified to watch for patients with e coli symptoms the 10 current cases bring the total number of e coli bacteria infections this year to 24 in 2001 york region health services investi gated 25 e coli cases and 35 cases in 2000 e coli are bacteria that are com monly found in the intestines of humans and animals verotoxinproducing esch erichia coli vtec are bacteria that can cause symptoms such as stom ach cramps vomiting fever and diarrhea after the bacteria are ingested it can take two to eight days before symptoms start the illness usually lasts seven to 10 days for more information on e coli bacteria call york region health services at 18003615653 or visit their web site at wwwregionyorkonca roger varley can be reached at rvarleytheliberalcom correction the headline on a story in thursdays economist sun con tained an error markham mayor don cousens received his first kidney transplant tuesday last may mayor cousens had a diseased kidney removed in another operation the economist sun regrets the error