Jennifer Turcotte says that nobody wants to raise children in a city knowing their backyard, the floor and air contain high levels of arsenic.
Resident of Rouyn-Noranda, who., Hogar of the Horne smelting that has been in operation since 1927, the mother of three children says that the solution is not as simple as getting away.
“It’s very complex,” said Turcotte, stopped off the National Assembly of Quebec, participating in a protest on Thursday.
“We are attached to the area, we love our community … It is extremely difficult to know that you have to deal with this risk.”
For years, residents such as Turcotte have been creating awareness about the need to reduce arsenic emissions in their hometown.
While there have been several studies on the effects of the only Copper in Canada’s foundry, a Study 2022 From the Public Health Institute of Quebec (INSPQ) confirmed that the highest cancer rates and lung diseases are directly related to high emissions of arsenic and cadmium in Rouyn-Noranda due to the smelting of Horne.
The flakeer of Mères Aut Front de Rouyn-NorandaTurcotte is among the locals who demand that those who live in the city located in the west of Quebec face the same level of risk as other Quebers.
Children particularly vulnerable to toxins
In early 1900, the prospector Edmund Henry Horne discovered copper and gold in the area, which led to mining and the development of the city of Noranda, who later merged with neighbor Rouyn.
The foundry was built in 1926, long before environmental norms were established. It is now owned by Glencore Canada, whose Swiss parent company produces and markets a range of metals and minerals worldwide.
In 2024, the foundry announced that it was progress towards arsenic emissionssaying that it decreased almost 40 percent compared to the previous year.
The foundry said that about 99 percent of the urban area of Rouyn-Noranda had emissions of 15 nanograms of arsenic per cubic meter of air or below. Meanwhile, the provincial Quebec standard for arsenic emissions is an annual average of three nanograms per cubic meter.
In 2021, the foundry was allowed to issue a maximum of 100 nanograms per cubic meter of arsenic in the air, or 33 times the Quebec standard.
Arsenic is associated with things such as skin cancer, lung, liver and bladder, says Dr. Koren Mann, professor and president of pharmacology and therapy at McGill University.
Having studied the effects of arsenic, he says that he is also associated with cardiovascular diseases, immune changes and diabetes.
“We don’t know how long a disease has been developing,” said Mann. “We do not know if it is exposed when I was a child and eliminates them from arsenic, does that decrease the risk later?”
She says that children are particularly vulnerable as their brains, bones and immune systems are growing.
“These tend to be really vulnerable for environmental exposures and environmental toxins,” Mann said.
“My children are no less important,” says the resident
On Thursday, dozens of protesters remained in solidarity in the city of Quebec, some black paintings stained in their bodies to symbolize the effects of chemicals on residents.
“It is the only place where this [provincial] The standard is not forced to apply. Then it makes no sense, “said Isabelle Fortin-Andeau Mères Aut Front de Rouyn-Noranda.
“My children are no less important than children in the city of Quebec or Montreal. The health of my children is no less important than that of the children of elected officials.”
Fortin-Andeau says he is not sure to make the right decision returning to Rouyn-Noranda to raise his family.
Having left his hometown for years, he said that when he returned home, he was not aware of the “reach of pollution.”
“I have been exposing my children for an average of 15 years to all these pollutants, and potentially to develop cancer,” said Fortin-Andeau. “I tell myself: ‘Well, my God, if I knew this, I could have made different decisions.”
New Biomonitoring Program for Employees
On Thursday, at the same time as the protest in the city of Quebec, the Foundry held a press conference in Rouyn-Noranda to announce a arsenic biomonitoring program to evaluate the exhibition of environmental pollutants among its employees, their social circles and families and families .
Measurement of concentrations of substances found in the urine and nails of the participants, for example, the company says that participation in the study will be voluntary.
To participate, employees and their families must communicate with Intrinsik teams, a science -based consulting firm.
As part of the announcement, the general manager of the foundry, Vincent Aposition, said that the biomonitoring studies of 2018 and 2019 left unanswered questions and that the company is looking for more information about the “real internal exposure” of arsenic.
The research that has been carried out so far has provided a very selected image, says Mann.
“We don’t even have a good handling what the long -term consequences are,” he said.
“Rouyn-Noranda residents have a higher level of lung cancer than the Average Quebec population and, nevertheless, they have lower rates of smoking … Is it arsenic?”
As a resident of the city, Turcotte says that he feels that the announcement of the foundry is part of a strategy to try to “dilute what we already know.”
“We know the risks associated with the pollutants to which we are exposed and are enough for the government to enforce the standards,” he said.
“The people of Rouyn feel that they have been completely sacrificed … it is completely unfair. “
