The pressure on the Government of Quebec and the Horne Foundry in Rouyn-Noranda regarding arsenic fumes has just escalated again this week.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
First, about fifty doctors in the city – more than half – signed a letter to demand that the foundry be imposed the same standard as elsewhere in Quebec in terms of arsenic.
Then, the College of Physicians intervened publicly to deplore the current situation and invite the government to act quickly.
“The science is clear. We must quickly put in place measures to ensure better air quality,” pleaded the professional order of physicians of Quebec.
The Ordre des chimistes du Québec has also spoken out on this subject, questioning the “management” of the government and the company Glencore, which owns the foundry.
These public interventions are not trivial. It was important to take this into account, and this is what François Legault did on Tuesday when he said that he did not rule out closing the foundry.
After this exit from the Prime Minister, if the owners of the factory do not realize that they will not get away with half measures, they will never understand it.
The public outings that have accumulated over the past few weeks show that almost everyone, at present, thinks that the foundry is still spitting too much arsenic into the air of Rouyn-Noranda.
Only plant managers are reluctant to drastically reduce their emissions. Yes, the bill for them would be high. But given the health risks it poses, the status quo is unjustifiable.
The foundry’s arsenic fumes are still far from the standard established by Quebec’s Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, which is 3 nanograms per cubic meter.
However, the Government of Quebec allowed the foundry to greatly exceed this rate. He granted him a “sanitation certificate”, which is a clause of acquired rights – called grandfather clause – renewable.
When it was last renewed in 2017, the annual average arsenic concentration associated with the smelter was limited to 100 nanograms per cubic meter, 33 times higher than the standard.
The debate seems very technical, but behind these figures hide potential health problems.
The Rouyn-Noranda doctors notably recalled that from an arsenic level of 15 nanograms per cubic meter, “neurocognitive effects have been described in certain studies on children”.
Last year, near the smelter, the average concentration of arsenic in the air was reported to be 87 nanograms per cubic meter.
It is easy to understand the impatience and dismay when you think that a working group formed by Quebec had recommended that the plant, as early as 2004, reduce its emissions to less than 10 nanograms per cubic meter.
If, on the smelter side, we persist in saying that it is impossible to quickly reach the Quebec standard for arsenic levels, how far should emissions be reduced and how quickly ? What would be safe?
It is to be hoped that the new national director of public health in Quebec will offer answers to these questions this Wednesday. The Dr Luc Boileau is in Rouyn-Noranda to take stock of the issue. He will present the long-awaited opinion of the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ) on the assessment of the carcinogenic risk attributable to the concentrations of arsenic and cadmium in the air.
Rare are those who dream of seeing the factory close its doors. The problem is that by wanting to keep it open at all costs, we have been complacent for too long.
But the tone of the debate has changed.
Even the Rouyn-Noranda Chamber of Commerce now believes that economic vitality cannot take precedence over the health of the population.
The time has therefore come to tighten the screws at the foundry. A grandfather clause cannot justify laissez-faire.