The presence of pollutants called PFAS in the water in certain sectors of La Baie worries citizens.
Many of them came to the La Baie library on Wednesday afternoon to take part in the question and answer session assigned to them during the municipal council meeting.
dr Jean-François Betala Belinga was present to answer many questions from the citizens present. There were a hundred of them in the small room set aside for the meeting.
Public health wanted to reassure by stating that the water is still safe to drink, despite the presence of the PFAS pollutant. Citizens are concerned about the effects of this water on their health.
After the remarks of Dr. Betala Belinga could have adverse health effects from prolonged exposure to the perfluorinated compound over a period of about 70 years.
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However, there is currently no scientific evidence that PFAS can have any short-term health effects.
There are 10,000 PFAS compounds and two of them, PFOA and PFOS, are considered toxic. They are undetectable with current instruments and were therefore not included in the water samples collected by the Ministère de l’Environnement in the La Baie sector.
To date, the health effects of many PFAS compounds have not been documented.
Despite everything, the doctor wanted to be reassuring.
“PFAS is a collection of compounds, some more toxic than others. There have been updates on this recently and in the case of these updates we have performed an analysis of about twenty PFAS. We looked for those that are believed to be the most toxic and could render the water undrinkable. “We didn’t find them, so the water in La Baie is drinkable,” he said.
“On the other hand, since we find other types of PFAS, we recommend public health to take medium-term measures to reduce them as part of a prevention approach,” he added.
Health Canada recommends that PFAS levels not exceed 30 nanograms per liter.
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Despite public health responses, citizens remain concerned and want more details on the effects of this substance on their health.
“As a public health worker, for prevention purposes, you are urging people to drink contaminated water when you do not know whether it is harmful or not. I would never give my kids this water,” said Martial Laberge, who has lived in La Baie for 63 years and worries about the long-term effects of water on his health.
Citizens called for another meeting with health officials for more information.
Public health isn’t closing the door on that possibility, but nothing is confirmed at the moment.