Iqaluit Northmart's air quality safe when tested 2 days after fire, documents show

The air quality at Iqaluit's Northmart was safe to breathe when it was tested nearly two weeks after a fire destroyed a large part of the store in November.

Although the first test only came two days after the store re-opened, and no air quality tests were done the weekend of the re-opening, when air scrubbers were turned off.

Documents obtained by CBC News through an Access to Information request show Qikiqtaaluk Environmental tested the air quality in the afternoon of Nov. 19 — two days after the store reopened, and 11 days after the fire. 

While there aren't any Canadian guidelines set out for what consists of safe levels of measured volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) in the air, Qikiqtaaluk Environmental determined the air quality it sampled at the time met the guidelines set out by industry standards.

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"I've seen better results in my career, especially for MVOCs measurements taken close to the backstore wall where the fire occurred," wrote Olivier Simard, Qikiqtaaluk Environmental's project manager, to Nunavut health officials after his team's inspection.

"Going forward I've noticed a bunch of air scrubbers that were installed all over the site which is good. Those will remove particulates in the air through their [high-efficiency particulate air] filters (if equipped with one) but will not remove VOCs unless also equipped with an activated carbon or other specialized VOCs filter media."

Qikiqtaaluk Environment presented a final report to Nunavut's Health Department in January. CBC News had the report looked at by Jeff Brook, an indoor air quality expert at the University of Toronto.

"Assuming that the two instruments were properly working (and the values they report seem to suggest they were reasonable), then I tend to agree with the report's conclusions about the particles," Brook said.

Health inspector omitted details in CBC interview 

After Northmart re-opened, CBC News interviewed one of Nunavut's health inspectors to talk about the overall cleanliness of the store.

While the store's air quality was discussed, the inspector omitted details about Qikiqtaaluk Environment testing the air quality the day before the interview, and withheld details about how those tests showed the air quality was safe.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Nunavut's Health Department said the health inspector didn't have permission from the department to talk about Qikiqtaaluk Environment being commissioned to do testing. Those approvals came two hours after the interview, although the department did not follow up with CBC with the additional information.

Read the report from Qikiqtaaluk Environmental here. On mobile? Follow this link. 

Air scrubbers turned off weekend of store re-opening

While Simard told health officials the air scrubbers would help with the air quality, emails show those scrubbers were turned off the weekend the store re-opened — before Simard and his team went in to do their testing.

Health Minister George Hickes was asked about the store's air quality during a committee of the whole meeting last week, and confirmed the scrubbers were turned off.

"At one point, there was an unfortunate incident that the store shut off the cleaners when the store opened. I guess they thought that their intrusion on the noise pollution, if you want to call it that, to the customers," Hickes told the committee on Friday.

"Once that was identified, those machines were left on during the operating hours, in addition to after hours. That mitigated the concerns of the Environmental Health Officers. Air quality testing came within acceptable parameters."

Qikiqtaaluk Environment said it did not conduct any air quality tests during the weekend the store re-opened — when the scrubbers were off — and Nunavut health officials confirmed at the time there hadn't been any air quality tests done before the store opened.

According to the Qikiqtaaluk Environment report, the Northwest Company has requested a more in-depth indoor air quality study be done. Those results were still pending as of January.