Alarmed by the consequences of poor air quality in schools, stakeholders are “outraged” by the location of a new primary school to be built a few dozen meters from the highway.
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Scheduled to accommodate 408 students and 50 employees, the new school which is slowly taking shape in Beauport, and whose name has not yet been revealed, should open for the start of the school year in the fall of 2023.
Good news for families in the area… Except that it will be located on Avenue des Vents, less than a hundred meters from the Félix-Leclerc highway.
“We’ve been talking about the fact that the air quality in our schools is hard for years and now we’re going to install one next to the highway. It makes no sense! “, plague Louis-Michel Langevin, who will have to send his daughter there despite himself next year.
In 2021, the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment indicated in particular that the construction of schools should be prohibited within 300 meters of a highway “due to the high emission of atmospheric pollutants”.
Health risks
A high concentration of these pollutants is associated in children with the development of asthma, autism, leukemia and intellectual delays, explains the president of the organization Santé Urbanité, Johanne Elsener.
Photo provided by Johanne Elsener
Johanne Elsener, president of Santé Urbanité.
“It’s revolting to take the risk of exposing these children to all these problems, when we know them!” she complains.
The World Health Organization (WHO) target for fine particles in the air is 5 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3). However, the monitoring station located along the Henri-IV highway has an average of 9.4 μg/m3.
“We can expect it to be similar on the side of the Félix-Leclerc highway,” said Ms. Elsener.
The 71 trees, including deciduous trees, which will be planted to compensate for the felling of a wooded area necessary for the construction of the school will not be sufficient to capture all the fumes from cars, especially in winter, she believes.
Difficult to access
We also denounce the access to the building, which will be located behind the Seigneurie high school, via avenue des Vents, where there is no sidewalk and where traffic is already heavy during rush hour.
“The school […] should not influence the daily circulation, which must remain fluid. A pedestrian network is essential […] [et] it is strongly discouraged to set up near fast and dense traffic lanes”, writes the Ministry of Education in its real estate planning guide.
“It’s already a mess when school ends in that area, it’s just going to make things worse. It is dangerous for our children, there is no chance that we will send them on foot,” laments Mr. Langevin.