2024-05-15 08:01:38
The Basic Directorate of Public Well being of Quebec is making ready to face the forest hearth season, one yr following the distinctive fires which ravaged greater than 5 million hectares of Quebec territory – a file – and compelled the evacuation of communities. It’s going to shortly publish suggestions to assist folks, faculties, daycares and day camps resolve what actions they may maintain if air high quality deteriorates within the coming weeks.
Many Quebecers didn’t know react when the sky grew to become cloudy and darkish final yr resulting from forest fires. The suggestions from public well being departments generally differed from one area to a different. In Laval, faculties and childcare facilities had been instructed to maintain youngsters indoors on June 6, 2023 in the course of the passage of a plume of smoke linked to the fires in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. However not in Montreal, a neighboring metropolis.
In an interview with Le Devoir, the nationwide director of public well being, Dr. Luc Boileau, mentioned he wished to “keep away from” such conditions and guarantee “consistency” throughout Quebec. “Final yr, we had not deliberate to be uncovered [aux feux de forêt] in such an intense method, he says. No person anticipated it. We had been very happy with the response of the general public well being community. On the similar time, we rapidly felt that we would have liked to equip ourselves with key benchmarks, based mostly on finest practices. »
Quebecers will quickly be capable to seek the advice of, at quebec.ca, suggestions from the authorities aimed toward guiding them throughout episodes of smog. This recommendation varies relying on the extent of focus of superb particles within the air and on folks’s situations.
Public Well being divides the inhabitants into two giant classes: these aged 5 to 64 and other people “at larger threat” (having a respiratory or coronary heart illness; who’re diabetic; aged 4 and underneath or 65 and over, girls audio system).
A shade code can be used to current the extent of air high quality: blue for “good” (focus of superb particles from 0 to 30 ug/m3); yellow for “unhealthy for folks at larger threat” (30 to 60 ug/m3); orange for “unhealthy” for the complete inhabitants (60 to 100 ug/m3); purple for “very unhealthy” (from 100 to 250 ug/m3) and purple for “harmful” (greater than 250 ug/m3).
Particular suggestions are additionally printed for “blended environments”, equivalent to daycare providers, faculties, day camps and personal seniors’ residences.
“The target is to assist everybody to reside with the state of affairs and never for the state of affairs to stop them from dwelling,” says Dr. Philippe Robert, physician specializing in public well being and preventive medication on the Public Well being Division. from the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale, who participated within the writing of the information. ” There might be no [recommandation de] closure of faculties. »
With local weather change, the variety of fires and their depth will enhance over the approaching many years, he factors out. We should study to cope with this “new actuality”.
No “breath-taking” actions
Public Well being recommends that folks in danger “scale back or [de] postpone breath-taking actions” when the focus of superb particles reaches 60 ug/m3 of their locality — 100 ug/m3 for the remainder of the inhabitants. “After we do bodily exercise, we breathe much more air than if we’re sitting and resting,” explains Dr. Robert. From 100 ug/m3, folks at larger threat and “blended environments” ought to maintain their actions indoors. “Like when there’s a storm,” illustrates the specialist.
As for air conditioners and warmth pumps, they’ll stay on always. Nonetheless, you will need to shut the air exchanger (or put it in “recirculation” mode) as quickly because the air high quality turns into poor (30 ug/m3).
And how will you know the focus of superb particles close to you? Quebecers might be invited to seek the advice of the interactive map from the College of Northern British Columbia (cyclone.unbc.ca) which lists the measurements taken by sampling stations and air high quality sensors throughout the nation.
On the North Shore, further sensors have been put in in current weeks, in anticipation of the forest hearth season. “Final yr, we added sensors when the fires began,” says the native regional public well being director, Dr. Richard Fachehoun. This yr, we mentioned: “We’ll set up them from April.” We wish to monitor air high quality early. »
Response
The president of the Quebec Affiliation of Physicians for the Setting (AQME), Dr. Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers, “views this public well being initiative positively.” Nonetheless, she believes that the authorities should inform Quebecers in regards to the “grey areas” surrounding air pollution linked to forest fires.
“There are only a few research which have been executed,” she mentioned. We all know that when there are acute episodes, it will increase the chance of loss of life, pulmonary issues, coronary heart issues. However we notice that we do not actually know [quel est] the long-term cumulative impact. »
In accordance with her, no examine demonstrates, within the scientific literature, that beneath a “sure threshold”, this air pollution presents no threat to well being. “I believe that ultimately we should always be capable to combine this uncertainty into our suggestions, as soon as once more in order to not induce folks into a sense of false safety. »
The AQME is asking Quebec to decrease its air high quality normal for superb particles, set at 30 ug/m3, in order that it complies with the advice of 15 ug/m3 from the World Well being Group. well being (WHO).
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