We had to talk about lung cancer in Rouyn-Noranda. Notify the population that mortality rates were higher in this city than elsewhere in Quebec.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The data was worrying and needed to be made public. For the Public Health Department (DSPu) of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, this “seemed important”. Hence appendix 6 to the report it was about to release in September 2019.
It read that “arsenic is an aggravating factor favoring the development of lung cancer and [que] this health effect is of particular concern to the DSPu”.
Well, we should have read it. Radio-Canada revealed this week that Annex 6 had been withdrawn at the last minute, at the request of the national director of public health at the time, Horacio Arruda.
By way of explanation, the Ministry of Health suggests that the information contained in Appendix 6 “did not fall within the objectives sought by the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Public Health Department”.
It does not matter if the DSPu deemed it relevant to highlight the incidence of lung cancer in Rouyn-Noranda; the big boss, he had decided that the disclosure of this data was not part of his objectives. Farewell, the appendix!
The explanation seems aberrant. By disseminating this data, the DSPu would have fulfilled its mandate: to protect the health of the population. Horacio Arruda also had the same mandate. As national director of public health, he was certainly not supposed to withdraw such crucial information from the inhabitants of Rouyn-Noranda. Why did he do it?
Perhaps because he was not wearing his hat as national director of public health that day. Maybe he was wearing his other hat. When he showed up in Rouyn-Noranda on September 26, 2019, the Dr Arruda said he came “as an adviser to Minister Lionel Carmant”, according to the minutes of a meeting held that day.
“I am not assistant deputy minister when I am director” of public health, explained Horacio Arruda in a parliamentary committee in December 2020. Remember: his power of internal dissociation had made many skeptics during the pandemic. How many times has his dual allegiance caused confusion? How many times have we suspected that its directives responded to a government order rather than real health imperatives?
How do you know which of the two hats was screwed on his head when he gave his opinion on masks or ventilation in schools? The Dr Arruda could have the best intentions in the world, but that wasn’t enough. There may not have been a conflict of interest, but there was definitely gender confusion.
With this appendix case removed, the same problem arises. In 2019, the Dr Arruda justified his decision to his colleagues by explaining that Annex 6 could give the impression that all lung cancers in Rouyn-Noranda were attributable to arsenic. He preferred to release the data later, in a separate, more substantial report. Last night the Department of Health announced that this report will be published within the next few weeks and reiterated that it was “false to allege that the Dr Arruda prevented the dissemination of data on lung cancer in Rouyn-Noranda”. And that’s probably the bare truth.
But the doubt persists, given the two hats.
Let’s take a step back. Annex 6 would have been added to an already devastating report. The study revealed that the fingernails of children in the Notre-Dame district of Rouyn-Noranda contained four times more arsenic than those of children in Amos.
In other words, the September 2019 report confirmed that children raised in the shadow of the Horne Foundry had been exposed to a carcinogen. Even without its appendix, the document was terribly shocking.
Annex 6 was therefore just that; an appendix to a much larger scandal.
Last month, the DSPu ended up publishing data – alarming – on the state of health of the inhabitants of the Notre-Dame district. Yes, there are more lung cancers, but also more chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, more births of low birth weight babies – and a reduced life expectancy of five years compared to all Quebecers.
There it is, the heart of the scandal. So big you can’t seem to see it. In the middle of the city. With its large chimneys, eternal as hell.
And yet, the DSPu seems to ignore it. She continues her research. What can cause all these cancers, all these lung diseases? “While Public Health is looking for the causes, voices are calling for stricter rules for the Horne Foundry, an idea rejected by Quebec,” wrote my colleague Jean-Thomas Léveillé.1May 25.
We’ve known that for decades.
The scandal is that Quebec submits to company law. Arsenic emissions into the air must not exceed three nanograms per cubic meter, according to the Quebec standard. However, the Horne Foundry has the right to emit 33 times more than this standard, on the pretext that it began its activities in 1927.
The scandal is that in the name of the local economy, Quebec granted this company an acquired right: that of polluting. But it creates jobs. As Richard Desjardins said (again), you will have to die, if you want to live, my friend.