Quebec’s proposal to impose a limit of 15 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3) of arsenic in the air within five years at the Horne Foundry in Rouyn-Noranda is insufficient in the eyes of a group of doctors from the Abitibi town.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“The current plan does not appear acceptable in terms of the health of the population”, they write in their brief written as part of the ongoing public consultation on the renewal of the ministerial authorization of the multinational Glencore for the operation of the Horne Foundry.
Recognizing that the requirements proposed by Quebec would allow “certain gains”, the committee of the Medical Initiative for Action Against Environmental Toxicity (IMPACTE) considers however that they would not make it possible to reach “the benchmarks deemed safe for public health within an acceptable period of time,” the document states. The Press obtained.
The IMPACT committee calls instead for the target of 15 ng/m to be reached3 “in the next year”, as well as reaching the Quebec standard of 3 ng/m3 between now and the expiry of the next authorization for the foundry, i.e. “within five years maximum”.
The population of Rouyn-Noranda is entitled to the same quality of air as everywhere in Quebec.
Excerpt from the brief of the IMPACT committee
The doctors are also asking that the foundry be required to respect Quebec standards as of next year “for all metals and contaminants in the air”, which is not currently the case, and that the establishment of a lung cancer screening program “specifically for the people of Rouyn-Noranda”.
Doctors are also concerned about the impact of the plan proposed by Quebec on “the attractiveness and retention of the medical profession in Rouyn-Noranda”, pointing out that 80% of the approximately 100 doctors practicing in the city are from outside. .
“With about 4,000 patients [attendant] a family doctor, many retirements to come, a radiotherapy center that is still not functional due to lack of manpower, this situation is very likely to have a direct impact on the population’s access to health care of Rouyn-Noranda,” the document states.
Other solutions “exist”
The 15 ng/m threshold3 proposed by Quebec is also criticized in briefs other than The Press was able to consult, including that of the Regroupement Vigilance Mines de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue (REVIMAT), which proposes solutions to reach the standard of 3 ng/m³ within five years: the foundry should stop using highly contaminated concentrates in arsenic, cadmium and lead and reduce the processing of materials to be recycled which have a high arsenic content.
This would be “less profitable for the company”, recognizes the REVIMAT, but it would force it to accelerate the upgrade of the factory, he believes.
The group also calls for the implementation of a pre-treatment process “to separate arsenic from other compounds before integrating them into the normal circuit”.
Pediatrician Pierre Vincelette, who has been practicing in Rouyn-Noranda since 1975 and has lived since 1981 in the Notre-Dame district, where the foundry is located, also calls in his brief for stricter requirements than those proposed by Quebec.
“The Horne Foundry had the ability to plan since 2004 for the required drop to a level of 3 ng/m3 “, he writes, referring to the notice published that year by a ministerial committee of the Quebec government, which recommended imposing this threshold on the foundry.
“She could and should have acted more quickly”, instead of procrastinating, procrastinating and wasting time, asserts the doctor.
This is what we are entitled to expect from a corporate citizen who wants to be responsible.
Excerpt from the memoir of the pediatrician Pierre Vincelette
Glencore and the Rouyn-Noranda Chamber of Commerce and Industry will also submit a brief during the consultation, but did not wish to send it to The Press, while that of the City of Rouyn-Noranda had not yet been completed at the time of writing these lines; the foundry workers’ union said it did not know if it would submit one.
The public consultation continues online until Thursday, October 20, and two in-person consultation periods will take place on Tuesday at the Hotel Le Noranda.
Quebec, which refused to indicate how many people had participated in the consultation so far, intends to make a decision concerning the renewal of the ministerial authorization of the Horne Foundry “by the end of November”.
A mysterious survey
A telephone survey on the Horne Foundry conducted in Rouyn-Noranda in recent days has intrigued the population, some being offended that the firm CROP refuses to reveal for whom it was conducting the survey. The company Glencore, owner of the foundry, commissioned the survey, she confirmed to The Press. The results, which she does not intend to publish, will “guide [sa] investment decision” regarding the company’s modernization plan, explained its spokesman, Alexis Segal. Survey firms are not required to identify the client for whom they are conducting their survey at the start of the conversation, so as not to influence the responses, but “increasingly, the practice is to say that we may reveal the name of the sponsor at the end of the interview,” points out professor in the sociology department at the Université de Montréal Claire Durand, an expert in the field.
Learn more
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- 1927
- Year of the start of activities of the Horne Foundry in Rouyn-Noranda, which also operated a mine until 1976
SOURCE: HORNE FOUNDRY