How much serious is it?

Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental issues for cities in the 21st century. Moreover it is also an issue of public health. As we can see on a UK governmental webpage, the two major air pollutants are Particulate matter (PM), ‘a complex mixture of solid and liquid particles of varying size, shape and composition’, and Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). But there are many others such as ammonia and carbon monoxide. In 2011, Radio Canada [in French] reported that the World Health Organisation produced a classification where Montreal was the second Canadian city after Sarnia with the worst air quality. Even if it was concerning, Radio Canada put it into perspective because with a concentration of PM2.5 of 11.2 microgrammes, Montreal was really behind Paris (22.7 mg) or Beijing (121 mg).

Montreal is a large spread-out city. Even if there are a network of public transports called STM with 4 metro lines and almost 200 bus lines, automotive stay a major mode of transport. The number of vehicles circulating in the Montreal’s agglomeration still increases and reaches almost 1 million. The questions of transport and air pollution are very linked because transports are responsible of the most important part of air pollution in cities where there are not a lot of industries. Montreal does not have a lot of polluting industries, but receives pollution from industries of Toronto and the US midwest because of dominants winds from the west. In 2017, an article of CBC indicates improvements in Montreal’s air quality since 2002 thanks to the shuttering of Ontario’s coal-fire power generation plants and of the Shell refinery in Montreal’s east. The room for improvement for Montreal is in wood-burning stoves and internal combustion vehicles. According to an article of The Globe and Mail in 2018, the major part of the Montreal’s air pollution is due to road traffic, but ‘bad-air days are triggered by the open flames used to cook bagels and rotisserie chicken and, especially, the fireplace sparked up for the warm, romantic glow against the chill’.

Why is it worrying?

The website of the Government of Canada recaps the drivers and the impact of air pollution. As environmental impacts it put forward ecosystem changes, for example because of different level of resistance of plant species and increasing acidity of water. But the most concerning impact is probably on public health. The same webpage indicates that ‘in Canada, air pollution is linked to an estimated 14 400 deaths every year’, and that ‘the young, the elderly, those with acute illnesses and those living near cities are at greater risk’. According to Montreal’s city hall, air pollution is the source of 1540 premature death each year in the city. A scientific study published in 2013 confirms for Montreal a higher vulnerability to air pollution mortality for example for people with cardiovascular disease, diabetes or hypertension (Goldberg et al, 2013).

A team of Montrealer scientists published several studies about the differences of exposure to air pollution depending to the mode of transportation, and noticed in one of them that ‘although the level of exposure to the NO₂ pollutant do not significantly differ among the three modes [bike, car and public transports], the inhaled doses of NO₂ pollutant are more than three times higher for cyclists than for motorists due to their stronger ventilation’ (Apparicio et al, 2018, p. 182). An other team of scientists published several studies about the geographical repartition of air pollution in Montreal and compared it to indicators of social deprivation. They identified ‘specific neighbourhoods that were characterised by double burden of high levels of deprivation and high concentration of ambient NO₂’ (Crouse et al., 2009, p. 971). Even if they also found interesting exceptions, they want to raise awareness of considering socials contexts when looking at environmental equity.

The scientific community of Montreal seems to consider seriously the problem of air pollution and produced important knowledges to understand its consequences and who are the more vulnerable. This knowledges should be used to prioritize actions in the struggle against air pollution in the political sphere.

The following video of The National Geographic summarizes the issues of air pollution and notably how climate change, due to greenhouse gas that they consider as part of air pollution, aggravate the problem of air pollution.

Are there some policies and actions implemented ?

In the last Montreal’s sustainable plan (2016-2020), one of the ten collective targets is ‘Reach the Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standards (CAAQS) regarding ambient air fine particulate matter concentration (8.8 μg/m3) by 2020 – Three-year average of the annual average concentrations’. Others that concern modal share, reduction of GHG emissions or increase the canopy could have a positive impact on air pollution. Reducing air pollution is one of the displayed priority of Montreal’s city hall but it is more difficult to see if it is translated into actions. In terms of clean transports, Montreal develops a REV (Réseau Express Vélo: Express Bike Network) of 180km which will be accessible throughout the year, and plans extensions of several metro lines starting with the blue one towards the North of the city. Pending important improvements in air quality, you can consult it in real time on this website.

References:

Air pollution: drivers and impacts – Canada.ca. (2020). Retrieved 9 February 2020, from https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/air-pollution-drivers-impacts.html

Apparicio, P., Gelb, J., Carrier, M., Mathieu, M., & Kingham, S. (2018). Exposure to noise and air pollution by mode of transportation during rush hours in Montreal. Journal Of Transport Geography, 70, 182-192. doi: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2018.06.007

CBC news. (2017). Smog on the decline: Montreal’s air quality best since 2002. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-air-quality-2016-1.3919050

Crouse, D., Ross, N., & Goldberg, M. (2009). Double burden of deprivation and high concentrations of ambient air pollution at the neighbourhood scale in Montreal, Canada. Social Science & Medicine, 69(6), 971-981. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.07.010

EBN Express Bike Network. (2020). Retrieved 9 February 2020, from https://www.makingmtl.ca/ebn

Goldberg, M., Burnett, R., Stieb, D., Brophy, J., Daskalopoulou, S., Valois, M., & Brook, J. (2013). Associations between ambient air pollution and daily mortality among elderly persons in Montreal, Quebec. Science Of The Total Environment, 463-464, 931-942. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.06.095

Health matters: air pollution. (2020). Retrieved 9 February 2020, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-air-pollution/health-matters-air-pollution

Radio Canada. (2011). Qualité de l’air : Montréal au deuxième rang des villes canadiennes les plus polluées. Retrieved from https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/532488/qualite-air-montreal

Sustainable Montréal 2016-2020. (2020). Retrieved 9 February 2020, from http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/docs/page/d_durable_en/media/documents/plan_de_dd_en_lr.pdf

The globe and mail. (2018). The burning issue of Montreal’s smog. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-burning-issue-of-montreals-smog/article37596339/

Ville de Montréal – Montréal en statistiques – Nombre de véhicules en circulation. (2020). Retrieved 9 February 2020, from http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=6897,67889677&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

Ville de Montréal – Transport – Prolongement du réseau de métro. (2020). Retrieved 9 February 2020, from https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=8957,99621833&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL