The General Directorate of Public Health of Quebec is preparing to face the forest fire season, one year after the exceptional fires which ravaged more than five million hectares of Quebec territory – a record – and forced the evacuation of communities. It will shortly publish recommendations to help people, schools, daycares and day camps decide what activities they will hold if air quality deteriorates in the coming weeks.
Many Quebecers did not know how to react when the sky became cloudy and dark last year due to forest fires. The recommendations from public health departments sometimes differed from one region to another. In Laval, schools and childcare centers were instructed to keep children indoors on June 6, 2023 during the passage of a plume of smoke linked to the fires in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. But not in Montreal, a neighboring city.
In interview at Dutythe national director of public health, Dr Luc Boileau says he wants to “avoid” such situations and ensure “consistency” across Quebec. “Last year, we had not planned to be exposed [aux feux de forêt] in such an intense way, he says. Nobody anticipated it. We were very satisfied with the reaction of the public health network. At the same time, we quickly felt that we needed to equip ourselves with key benchmarks, based on best practices. »
Quebecers will soon be able to consult, at the address quebec.ca, recommendations from the authorities aimed at guiding them during episodes of smog. This advice varies depending on the level of concentration of fine particles in the air and on people’s conditions.
Public Health divides the population into two large categories: those aged 5 to 64 and people “at higher risk” (having a respiratory or heart disease; who are diabetic; aged four and under or 65 and over, women speakers).
A color code is also used to present the level of air quality: blue for “good” (concentration of fine particles from 0 to 30 ug/m3) ; yellow for “bad for people at higher risk” (30 to 60 ug/m3) ; orange for “bad” for the entire population (60 to 100 ug/m3) ; red for “very bad” (from 100 to 250 ug/m3) and mauve for “dangerous” (more than 250 ug/m3).
Specific recommendations are also published for “mixed environments”, such as daycare services, schools, day camps and private seniors’ residences.
“The objective is to help everyone live with the situation and not for the situation to prevent them from living,” says Dr.r Philippe Robert, doctor specializing in public health and preventive medicine at the Public Health Department of the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale, who participated in the writing of the guide. ” There will be no [recommandation de] closure of schools. »
With climate change, the number of fires and their intensity will increase over the coming decades, he points out. We will have to learn to deal with this “new reality”.
No “breath-taking” activities
Public Health recommends that people at risk “reduce or [de] postpone activities that cause shortness of breath” when the concentration of fine particles reaches 60 ug/m3 in their locality — 100 ug/m3 for the rest of the population. “When we do physical activity, we breathe a lot more air than if we are sitting and resting,” explains Dr.r Robert. From 100 ug/m3, people at higher risk and “mixed environments” should hold their activities indoors. “Like when there is a storm,” illustrates the specialist.
As for air conditioners and heat pumps, they can remain on at all times. However, you must close the air exchanger (or put it in “recirculation” mode) as soon as the air quality becomes poor (30 ug/m3).
And how can you know the concentration of fine particles near you? Quebecers will be invited to consult the interactive map of the University of Northern British Columbia (cyclone.unbc.ca) which lists measurements taken by sampling stations and air quality sensors across the country.
On the North Shore, additional sensors have been installed in recent weeks, in anticipation of the forest fire season. “Last year, we added sensors when the fires started,” says the local regional public health director, D.r Richard Fachehoun. This year, we said: “We’ll install them from April.” We want to monitor air quality early. »
Reaction
The president of the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment (AQME), Dr.D Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers, “sees positively” this public health initiative. However, she believes that the authorities must inform Quebecers about the “gray areas” surrounding pollution linked to forest fires.
“There are very few studies that have been done,” she said. We know that when there are acute episodes, it increases the risk of death, pulmonary problems, heart problems. But we realize that we don’t really know [quel est] the long-term cumulative effect. »
According to her, no study demonstrates, in the scientific literature, that below a “certain threshold”, this pollution presents no risk to health. “I think that eventually we should be able to integrate this uncertainty into our recommendations, once again so as not to induce people into a feeling of false security. »
The AQME asks Quebec to lower its air quality standard for fine particles, set at 30 ug/m3so that it meets the recommendation of 15 ug/m3 from the World Health Organization (WHO).