Demolition of the former Heritage Mall in Edmonton has been halted due to complaints from residents of a nearby apartment tower about the noise and dust.

Owners of the site, the future home of a 2,800-unit residential development, agreed to stop demolition work while complaints from nearby residents are being investigated, said Dr. Gerry Predy, medical officer for the Capital Health Authority.

"We have asked the contractor to stop work until we can find out what the situation is there because the dust has been a problem for some of the people there," Predy said today. He said demolition stopped late last week and will likely remain halted for a few more days or another week.

This follows complaints from the nearby Heritage Park Towers apartment buildings and other apartments about dust and noise from the demolition site.

Since early summer, residents have had to put up with noise from the demolition and fine concrete dust. Many living in the apartment towers are complaining about respiratory problems due to the dust, said Rick Coleman, a resident and organizer of the Heritage Action Committee.

"Our biggest concern is the noise and the dust," he said.

He said the dust gets into the building through windows, doors and the air supply system, settling on furniture and possessions and making it difficult to breathe. He has photographs of thick layers of dust settling on tabletops in apartment units only hours after being cleaned.

About 60 per cent of the residents of the tower are seniors, he added.
"For some, their breathing has really been affected," he said. He added the pounding of equipment smashing up concrete from the mall made it next to impossible to carry on a conversation or hear the television or radio.

To top it off, concrete dust contains a compound called silica, a suspected carcinogen.

"We don't know how much damage that has been done to us in the last several months," he said.

He welcomed the halt to the demolition but said it's only a temporary solution.
Predy said the demolition will remain at a standstill while until the dust problem is solved.

"We don't know at this point the exact composition of the dust," he said.

"That's what we're trying to investigate. Regardless of the composition, it was still causing some problems because it was getting into the air supply in some of these adjacent buildings."

The provincial Workplace Health and Safety branch is investigating reports that workers at the demolition site weren't wearing proper protective equipment. Coleman said he has seen workers in running shoes and without hardhats or goggles.