A commentary. Takaro is a B.C.-based physician-scientist in environmental medicine, public health and toxicology, and a member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Minet is lead researcher of the 2025 study, Analysis of Flaring Activity at Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Export Facilities Worldwide, and head of the Clean Air Lab at the University of Victoria.

When the first tanker of liquefied natural gas sailed from Kitimat this summer, B.C. officially joined the ranks of global LNG exporters. But a basic question remains: What does this mean for the health of people living in frontline communities like Kitimat, Squamish and Gingolx in Nisg̱a’a territory?

Our new peer-reviewed study in Environmental Science and Technology shows LNG terminals burn nearly three times more gas during their first two years of operation than afterward.

This start-up flaring releases black plumes of smoke filled with fine particulates, nitrogen oxides and carcinogenic volatile organic compounds — pollutants linked to heart disease, asthma,........

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