Use of a synthetic pesticide | A sanctioned hospital in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield

The Suroît hospital, in Montérégie, will be fined for using an insecticide banned for 11 years by the City of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. An event that lifts the veil on “preventive parasite management” practices in the health network, where the use of synthetic pesticides is still frequent.

Eric-Pierre Champagne
The Press

On June 14, inspectors from Salaberry-de-Valleyfield issued a notice of violation to a contractor who applied insecticide to the Suroît hospital building. The product used, lambda-cyhalothrin, is used in particular to combat insects in vegetable crops. However, this insecticide better known under the trade name Demand has been banned in the territory of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield since 2011.

“It’s a substance that is not without risk to human health,” says Louise Hénault-Éthier, director of the Center Eau Terre Environnement at the National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS). Lambda-cyhalothrin is considered in particular to be a possible carcinogen in humans and a potential endocrine disruptor.

The contractor, Gestion parasitaire du Québec, and the Montérégie-Ouest integrated health and social services center (CISSS), which oversees the Suroît hospital, will be fined for violating municipal regulations. The minimum fine is $714.

According to information obtained by The Press, the entrepreneur said he was not aware of the ban in force in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. He told municipal inspectors that the application of an insecticide at the Suroît hospital was provided for in his contract with the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest.

The company, which has its offices in Granby, is owned by Stéphan Sicotte. His firm won a call for tenders last April for the “pest management” of several buildings managed by the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest. Stéphan Sicotte did not respond to interview requests from The Press.

The contract provides for the pest management of several facilities located in different cities, including Longueuil, Châteauguay, Granby, Cowansville and Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. The Suroît Hospital as well as several CLSCs and CHSLDs appear on the list of buildings included in the agreement. This provides for “monthly preventive pest management” for 32 buildings as well as “indoor and outdoor spring watering against ants” for 24 establishments.

According to Jade St-Jean, communications advisor at the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest, “this supplier has a contract for preventive pest management for 58 facilities throughout the territory of the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest”. She points out that “the contractual agreement with the supplier stipulates that he must ensure that the exterior treatment must comply with the requirements of the various cities”.

M^me St-Jean adds that “according to the technical sheet of the product, when used outdoors, it becomes harmless five minutes after application, which is the drying time on the surfaces”.

Note that at least 12 municipalities located on the territory of the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest have their own pesticide regulations, as is the case in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. In other cities, it is Pesticides Act which applies and it does not prohibit the use of lambda-cyhalothrin for healthcare facilities.

Experts worried

The use of synthetic pesticides in the health network surprised the experts consulted by The Press. Micheline Lévesque, president of Solutions Alternatives Environnement (SAE), described the news as “not too reassuring”. The biologist who advises municipalities on environmental matters believes that “until we are forced to change, we will resort to the old ways of doing things”. These old ways include the use of insecticides in a preventive way, such as lambda-cyhalothrin.

“When you look at the sheet of this product, you immediately realize that it is not small beer”, indicates M^me Lévesque, who adds that the use of synthetic pesticides should only be done as a last resort, particularly for health establishments.

The call for tenders of the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest provides that the supplier “must provide at the start of the contract a list of the pesticides he intends to use as well as the MSDS for each of the products”.

Health facilities, although there are vulnerable people there, are not considered high-risk environments, as provided for in Quebec regulations on pesticides for schools and early childhood centers (CPE). Louise Hénault-Éthier wonders all the same what were the reasons that led to such an application at the Suroît hospital. “Were there any non-chemical options that could have been used? »

“What do we want to prevent? Are the products used more problematic than what we want to prevent? asks Louise Vandelac, professor of sociology at UQAM and director of the Ecohealth Research Collective on Pesticides, Policies and Alternatives.

The CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest did not specify whether a particular problem justified the use of such an insecticide at the Suroît hospital. The tender obtained by The Press reports a “fly problem” and the presence of carpenter ants and bats for this establishment.