(Rouyn-Noranda) Quebec’s new national director of public health will unveil in Rouyn-Noranda on Wednesday the document on cancer cases in the city that his predecessor promised in September 2019, 33 months earlier.
Posted at 5:00 am
Jean-Thomas Léveillé The press
Luc Boileau will attend a press conference this morning to “present the state of the environmental health situation in Rouyn-Noranda,” according to a press release from the Integrated Center for Health and Social Services of Abitibi -Témiscamingue (CISSSAT).
It will primarily be about the opinion of the INSPQ [Institut national de santé publique du Québec] on the assessment of the carcinogenic risk due to the concentrations of arsenic and cadmium in the air of the city of Rouyn-Noranda.
Sarah Charbonneau, CISSSAT Spokesperson
This document was written more than 33 months ago by Dr , in the matter of lung cancer.
dr Arruda said then, in September 2019, that a specific report on the matter would follow with “more” information.
According to François Legault, the emissions are too high
Prime Minister François Legault’s office estimated that “the Horne foundry needs to reduce its arsenic emissions, that’s obvious”.
The Quebec standard limits arsenic concentrations to 3 nanograms per cubic meter of air (ng/m3), but Quebec authorizes the Horne Foundry to produce concentrations of 100 ng/m3.
“We are not ruling out any scenario to ensure the well-being of the population,” Ewan Sauves, press secretary for the prime minister, said in a statement to La Presse.
The foundry’s emissions have “decreased sharply” since the CAQ government’s election, he said.
But let’s be clear: it’s still way too high.
Ewan Sauves, Prime Minister Legault’s press secretary
The procedure for renewing the foundry’s “sanitary certificate”, which entitles it to emit harmful substances, is underway, the prime minister’s office reminds.
The future certificate “includes a further reduction in emissions,” assures Mr. Sauves.
Professional orders jump into the fray
However, the prospect of a reduction in emissions at the end of the Horne Smelter’s current certificate, which expires next December, seems too distant for some.
“We must take action quickly to ensure better air quality” in Rouyn-Noranda, the College of Physicians of Quebec said in a tweet on the social network Twitter on Monday.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, THE PRESS
More than 43,000 people live in Rouyn-Noranda.
The Quebec Doctors’ Association responded to the open letter from around fifty doctors from Rouyn-Noranda and elsewhere in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, urging Prime Minister Legault to force the foundry to reduce its pollutant emissions “immediately.”
“The science is clear. The health of Rouyn-Noranda citizens is essential,” said the College of Physicians of Quebec.
The Ordre des chimistes du Québec (OCQ) also jumped into the fray on Monday, urging the government to be “diligent” on this file.
The organization is “asking” the follow-up by the government and multinational company Glencore, owner of the foundry, to the 2018 and 2019 biomonitoring studies that showed high levels of arsenic in the nails of children and adults. Dame quarter, close to the company.
“It seems unlikely to us that those responsible on both sides have still not taken action,” OCQ President Michel Alsayegh said in a press release, adding that “Arsenic can be effectively detected in the air and only chemists can step in as a bulwark. ” .
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4 Arsenic levels in the fingernails of Notre Dame residents are, on average, four times higher than those found in the Amos control population who are not exposed to arsenic.
SOURCE: Integrated Health and Social Services Center Abitibi-Témiscamingue (CISSSAT)