Quebecers who breathe polluted air don’t always live next to a highway or a factory. Several locations where most pollutants are found are residential, some of which are near elementary schools.
Quebec’s Les Primevères Elementary School is the location with the most days of poor air quality in 2021 due to particulate matter (PM2.5).
The latter cause major health problems, including cancer, and cause $30 billion in economic losses in Quebec.
Photo Martin Chevalier
Parc Vaillant in Terrebonne, which is also next to a school, is one of the places where concentrations of fine dust are highest. There are even more days with poor air quality there than near the Décarie interchange in Montreal.
In Terrebonne, too, the amount of particulate matter in Vaillant Park, in the middle of a residential area where the Esther Blondin primary school is located, is among the highest in the province, as analyzes by our investigation office show.
Even the station right next to the Décarie interchange in Montreal has nearly two to three times fewer days of poor air quality than those two locations.
These two stations have one thing in common: they are surrounded by many houses that are equipped with a wood stove.
NUMEROUS TRANSITIONS
Particulate matter has only been monitored in Quebec for twenty years. In 2021, our air quality monitoring network included around 63 stations analyzing the presence of various pollutants. We compared the annual mean values for the 49 stations that measure particulate matter.
Note that several stations in Quebec City are among the highest averages.
We also found that the levels of particulate matter observed in Quebec at almost all stations exceed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
These guidelines were revised in 2021 in the light of new scientific knowledge, the first time since 2005. The recommended annual mean value for particulate matter has thus been halved, from 10 to 5 μg/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre).
However, this is not a legal standard. “It’s an invitation to always strive for the lowest possible levels of pollution,” explains Audrey Smargiassi, Associate Researcher at INSPQ and expert on air quality and its impact on health.
“We’re far [des cibles de l’OMS]but solutions are in sight,” says Johanne Elsener, President of the organization Santé urbanité.
And we see it in Rouyn-Noranda with arsenic emissions, or in Quebec with the presence of nickel in Limoilou, Quebecers are increasingly concerned about the quality of the air they breathe.
The Canadian annual standard has been 8.8 μg/m3 since 2020. But the province sees him only as “a target.”
At 9.46 μg/m3, the concentrations at the Primevères school station exceed the Canadian standard and are almost twice those of the WHO.
NO REVISION
However, the office of the Quebec Minister of the Environment confirms that no revision of the particulate matter standard is currently planned.
He specifies that the culprit is very often wood heating and that it is up to the municipalities to intervene. Whilst endorsing this approach, he reminds us that “we have to be aware of certain regional realities and wood heating is an essential resource in cold weather”.
“This is a problem that we don’t take seriously enough,” regrets Ms. Elsener.
“It could be taken more into account in our collective decisions regarding transport, heating, energy production and climate change,” believes Dr. Philippe Robert from the Public Health Department of the CUSSS de Capitale-Nationale.
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