“The need for the app is crucial and the lack of (public pollution) information is allowing industries to get away with more than what we really know here on the ground,” said Vanessa Gray, 27, a grassroots organizer and educator from Aamjiwnaang First Nation. “The most important thing to me about the app is thinking about the families here when there’s a spill or release,” she continued, referring to fluid leaks and air discharges, such as acid gas flaring that produces sulphur dioxide.

A government whistleblower claims the province’s environment ministry has for years failed to properly protect the Aamjiwnaang First Nation — whose ancestral land near Sarnia is surrounded by petroleum refineries and chemical plants — from potentially dangerous levels of sulphur dioxide air emissions due to “systemic discrimination” that includes yielding to “secretive” industry lobbying to relax compliance standards.

People living in the shadow of Sarnia’s Chemical Valley have a new app at their fingertips to help report changes in what they smell and feel, and make sense of what chemical, or chemicals, might be responsible.

“The need for the app is crucial and the lack of (public pollution) information is allowing industries to get away with more than what we really know here on the ground,” said Vanessa Gray, 27, a grassroots organizer and educator from Aamjiwnaang First Nation. “The most important thing to me about the app is thinking about the families here when there’s a spill or release,” she continued, referring to fluid leaks and air discharges, such as acid gas flaring that produces sulphur dioxide.