About fifty doctors from Rouyn-Noranda are going to the front to ensure that the arsenic emissions from the Horne smelter, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, correspond to the standards of the Ministry of the Environment.
They co-signed an open letter to the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, on Sunday, urging him to impose on the foundry “the same standards as all of Quebec”.
Glencore, the company that owns the smelter, must renegotiate its exceptional pollution permit every 5 years. The next negotiation is in progress and the certification must be signed in the fall of 2022. For now, the only copper smelter in the country can emit up to 100 nanograms of arsenic per cubic meter (100 ng / m3 ). The standard provided by the province is 3 ng/m3.
In this context, the regional CISSS published data on the state of health of its population a few weeks ago. The prevalence of lung cancer and low birth weight appear to be more frequent near the smelter, while life expectancy is lower there. “The present data are not used to demonstrate or confirm a causal link between a specific exposure and a state of health”, however qualify the authors of the study.
“Something is happening now and it must not remain a dead letter, and it must move quickly,” insists the To have to one of the initiators of the open letter, family physician Marie-Pier Lemieux. “That’s what founded the city, we are well aware of that. But, in 2022, do we still tolerate this cost for health? We are no longer there. »
She and her colleagues argue that beyond health, it is the whole attractiveness of the region that suffers. “We are a region struggling with impressive labor shortages. This is nothing to improve the situation. How do you attract people to a place where it’s super beautiful, but where the life expectancy is lower? »
The Director of Public Health, Luc Boileau, will travel to Abitibi-Témiscamingue this week to take stock of “the environmental health file in the region”, indicated the Ministry of Health.