The beautiful season, that time when we open the windows and strut around on the balconies, in the parks or at the campsite. Between pleasures and inconveniences, the neighbors seem in any case closer than ever. Summer is made for cohabitation. Today, charcoal barbecues: worry or rejoice in the fumes?
You’re in a park with a barely standing kid, friends unpacking their picnic, and a few squirrels eyeing it all up. Suddenly, the whole scene is blurred by a cloud of smoke from several charcoal grills that have just been lit around you. You’re torn between salivating and coughing.
Maxime Lavoie, for his part, wouldn’t have a second of doubt in your place: “I don’t know anyone in the world who doesn’t like it. It’s such a reassuring smell.” He describes himself as a “consummate fan” of charcoal barbecues, who has made his passion his job, since he became president of the company BBQ Québec.
Grilling is a real culture for him: “I can talk to you about it all afternoon; I’m sitting on the grass with nine barbecues behind me,” he says. Charcoal is favored by fans like him because it “infuses” the food and gives it a distinctive flavor.
Mr. Lavoie still remembers the time, when he lived in Montreal, when he lit his briquette barbecue “panicking a little” that his neighbors would complain about the smells and the smoke: “But, on the contrary, they ended up coming to tell me that they were “tripping” on the charcoal barbecue too.”
In the city, in the absence of access to a campfire, the smell of grilling meat – or cauliflower, he would like to add – can become an evocation of vacations or strong memories… provided that it is “good smoke”.
The idea is to speed up the ignition process, so that combustion between 0 and 400 degrees occurs without releasing a cloud that could potentially alert the firefighters. There are some devices, or more simply a makeshift fan, to help the air circulate and support this good combustion. “You’re never supposed to suffocate next to it,” explains the father.
To worry about it?
Regulations around wood heating have never been so strict in Montreal, and soon in Quebec City. The unpleasant smoke from last year’s forest fires is also not so far away for many Quebec residents. Even the SEPAQ recently committed to better informing campers about the presence of fine particles attributable to campfires in the coming years. Will charcoal barbecues be the next source of air pollution to spark passions?
There are no known studies on the subject in Quebec or even in Canada, according to two experts that The duty consulted.
Some Montreal boroughs ban them in parks. The main reason, however, is not the smoke they give off, but the lack of ash bins to safely collect hot residue. “Our teams have encountered several dangerous situations caused by the use of charcoal barbecues in parks, such as burning trees, hot ashes thrown into the bathroom sink, or picnic tables and tree roots burned by embers,” wrote a communications officer for the borough of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, for example.
The DD Ève Riopel, pediatrician and member of the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment (AQME), took on the challenge of searching for documentation that addresses the subject. After a quick review of the scientific literature, she concluded: “Both breathing in inhalations and eating meat cooked on a charcoal barbecue can expose us to carcinogens.”
However, it is far from taking an alarmist tone. A Polish researcher, Artur Jerzy Badyda, has conducted several studies on this issue. In a 2022 scientific article, he explains that he measured exposure mainly to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and benzene according to different barbecues. Result: exposure to these substances is by far the greatest for the charcoal appliance compared to an electric or gas appliance.
Other studies tend to show that the concentration of these pollutants decreases rapidly as soon as we move away, even if it is only less than a meter: “So there is nothing catastrophic for the neighbors,” notes M.me Riopel. The most exposed therefore remains the one “who has his or her head in the grill”, she notes.
Both breathing in the fumes and consuming meat cooked on a charcoal barbecue can expose us to carcinogens.
Regarding burning wood in winter, it is important to remember that exposure is limited in time. “It is very specific and local,” says Stéphane Buteau, professor and researcher at the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal.
“From a health perspective, short-term exposures can exacerbate existing respiratory and cardiovascular problems,” he notes, adding that he is not aware of any studies on charcoal grills specifically.
“We don’t have a lifestyle that means we are continuously and repeatedly exposed to barbecue fumes,” the specialist reminds us, but that doesn’t prevent us from potentially feeling inconvenienced or experiencing discomfort at the time.
In the long term, ambient pollution promotes the development of chronic diseases, but it is more linked to emissions from road vehicles or living near an industry, adds Mr. Buteau. “The element that most influences the concentration of fine particles in the air, the main emitting category, is really road transport,” emphasizes Mr.me Riopel.
So is it better to have a barbecue in your backyard than to drive hundreds of kilometers? “I don’t have the answer, that’s a completely different comparison,” the doctor says with a laugh.