2024-02-22 11:21:29
Toxic fumes
If this solution brings some hope to the residents of Whapmagoostui and Kuujjuarapik, other communities with LEMNs are not so lucky. Health and environmental studies therefore remain crucial. During the public hearings on the inventory and management of final residues of the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE) in 2021, representatives of the Ministries of Health and Social Services (MSSS) of Quebec and the MELCCFP also affirmed that it was “highly urgent” to characterize the contaminants caused by these burnings in order to evaluate their effects.
However, three years later, the MSSS affirmed by email that it had an “interest in looking at the matter more closely”, but that “to achieve this, the acquisition of data concerning contaminants in living environments, in water and in the air is essential and this is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight once morest Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks. For its part, the MELCCFP suggests that “the first step to plan is to identify the data necessary for carrying out such studies since they are not currently available. No timetable has yet been set for implementing these recommendations.”
In the meantime, the science is clear on the dangerousness of certain contaminants produced during combustion. In 2016, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment considered the presence of contaminants in open-air waste burning fumes such as fine particles (PM2.5), particularly those of black carbon, to be “concerning”.
But what is more worrying for respiratory epidemiologist and research director at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in France, Isabella Annesi-Maesano, is the presence of furans and dioxins. These substances from the burning of plastics are considered carcinogenic by the World Health Organization. “Their effects on health vary depending on a host of parameters, such as the frequency and duration of exposure or the distance between the fumes and the vulnerable population. This is why field studies should be carried out in each of the exposed communities. »
The City of Schefferville decided not to wait for government studies and in 2008 ordered a modeling study of the contaminants of interest in the area surrounding its landfill. The study found that the maximum concentration of furans and dioxins released was 3167 times higher than the standard applicable on the site.
Isabella Annesi-Maesano, who has studied the effects of open burning in communities in West Africa, adds that the most recent studies tend to demonstrate that these fumes have irreversible consequences. “Studies among landfill workers are numerous enough for us to make links to cancers. I myself analyzed lung samples obtained by biopsies or sputum products in which there was so much black carbon that the alveolar macrophages, which must catch and phagocytize particles dangerous for the lung, might not reach them. no longer to renew itself. There are very serious hypotheses that the same phenomenon occurs elsewhere, notably in the brain, where the particles alter all types of cells. »
She encourages her Canadian counterparts to take the matter seriously. “We know very well the isolated effects of each of the contaminants contained in these fumes. Acute exposure to air pollution is known to be linked to strokes, birth defects or an increased risk of chronic respiratory diseases in children. I think you have excellent epidemiologists who might go out into the field and assess the effects of these contaminants on the population. These studies will then make it possible to make better decisions on how to manage these residual materials. »
Our journalist and Raphaël Joanisse-Clément, in front of the burning fumes from the current dump. Photo: Joshua J. Kawapit
Such studies would be timely, since the 26 LEMNs in Quebec will one day have to be replaced. For the moment, the MELCCFP affirms that no other landfill project is planned in the northern environment. In an email, a spokesperson explains that due to the presence of “permafrost and the very rarity of loose deposits [sable ou gravier]the burning of residual materials is necessary and allows a significant reduction in the volume of residual materials, in addition to [réduire] certain nuisances, such as the contamination of surface and groundwater and the attraction of animals.”
However, in Whapmagoostui and Kuujjuarapik, there is no permafrost, any more than in 11 of the 26 northern communities where waste is currently burned. “There would be a way to avoid burning in the open everywhere in Quebec. But it would be extremely expensive. The regulations would be much stricter and, therefore, it would be more complicated to manage, underlines Raphaël Joanisse-Clément. If there are no movable deposits, one can always set up a quarry to obtain them. In Nunavik, there is the option of elevated burial [sans creusage préalable], that is to say, the waste is deposited directly on the permafrost. Nunavut has already evaluated this option. But there are not many studies, some should be produced. »
Although these options are valid, the director of the Chair of research and intervention in eco-consulting at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, Claude Villeneuve, believes that it is more realistic to focus above all on the efficient sorting of residual materials and their reduction. And “we should fence off all the sites to avoid burning highly dangerous materials,” says the man who coordinated a portrait of residual materials management in northern Quebec in 2014. We must then set up ecocenters and sorting of waste. certain residual materials, such as plastic and construction materials, to make these fumes less toxic. The government of Quebec has the responsibility to do this.”
Regarding the new elevated Whapmagoostui site, Claude Villeneuve says that what is interesting is that the population was consulted and involved in the implementation of the project. “This is, in my opinion, the most important point in such a project. Of course, ideally, we would have installed a geomembrane to avoid contaminating the soil and the water table as much as possible, as is done elsewhere in Quebec. » For cost reasons and because the legislation does not require it, this was not done.
Although there are ecocenter and selective collection projects in Whapmagoostui and Kuujjuarapik, Pierre Roussel does not expect them to come to fruition quickly. “We have to do it in consultation with the Crees and the government of Quebec, and everything, by videoconference… It’s long and frustrating for us. I understand that the Quebec government has procedures to follow, but it would be good if we took into account the complexity of the process here to speed things up. »
The civil servant, father of five children and grandfather of eleven grandchildren, believes that things must be improved quickly for future generations. “We want greenery, we want beautiful projects! I think you can’t think regarding everything from the perspective of profitability. We must act for our young people, who clearly see the inequities that exist between the North and the South. »
This report was produced thanks to an excellence grant from the Association of Independent Journalists of Quebec.
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#population #Nunavik #longer #burn #waste
