Fear of arsenic emissions from smelter weighs on moms in Rouyn-Noranda, Que.

Jennifer Turcotte says no one wants to raise kids in a town knowing their backyard, soil and air contain high levels of arsenic.

A resident of Rouyn-Noranda, Que., home of the Horne Smelter which has been in operation since 1927, the mom of three says the solution is not as simple as moving away.

"It's very complex," said Turcotte, standing outside Quebec's National Assembly, taking part in a protest on Thursday.

"We're attached to the area, we love our community… it's extremely difficult to know you have to deal with this risk."

For years, residents like Turcotte have been raising awareness about the need to lower arsenic emissions in her hometown.

While there have been several studies on the effects of Canada's only copper smelter, a 2022 study by Quebec's Institute of Public Health (INSPQ) found that decades of exposure to arsenic and cadmium emissions from the Horne Smelter had increased residents' risk of cancer. 

The co-spokesperson for Mères au front de Rouyn-Noranda, Turcotte is among the locals demanding that those living in the town located in western Quebec face the same level of risk as other Quebecers.

Kids particularly vulnerable to toxins

In the early 1900s, prospector Edmund Henry Horne discovered copper and gold in the area, which led to mining and the development of the town of Noranda — which later merged with neighbouring Rouyn.

The smelter was built in 1926, long before environmental norms were established. It is owned now by Glencore Canada, whose Swiss parent company produces and markets a range of metals and minerals worldwide.

In 2024, the smelter announced it was making progress toward reducing arsenic emissions, saying it was down nearly 40 per cent from the year before.

The smelter said about 99 per cent of the urban area of Rouyn-Noranda had emissions of 15 nanograms of arsenic per cubic metre of air or below. Meanwhile, Quebec's provincial norm for arsenic emissions is an annual average of three nanograms per cubic metre.

In 2021, the smelter was permitted to emit a maximum of 100 nanograms per cubic metre of arsenic into the air, or 33 times the Quebec standard.

Arsenic is associated with things like skin, lung, liver and bladder cancer, says Dr. Koren Mann, professor and chair of pharmacology and therapeutics at McGill University.

Having studied the effects of arsenic, she says it's also associated with cardiovascular diseases, immune changes and diabetes.

"We don't know how long it takes to develop a disease," said Mann. "We don't know if you're exposed as a child and you remove them from the arsenic, does that decrease the risk later on?"

She says kids are particularly vulnerable as their brains, bones and immune systems are growing.

"These tend to be really vulnerable stages for environmental exposures and environmental toxins," said Mann.

'My children are no less important,' says resident

On Thursday, dozens of protesters stood in solidarity in Quebec City — some smearing black paint across their bodies to symbolize the effects of the chemicals on residents.

"It's the only place where this [provincial] standard isn't forced to be applied. So it doesn't make sense," said Isabelle Fortin-Rondeau with Mères au front de Rouyn-Noranda.

"My children are no less important than children in Quebec City or Montreal. My children's health is no less important than that of the children of elected officials."

Fortin-Rondeau says she's not sure she made the right decision moving back to Rouyn-Noranda to raise her family.

Having left her hometown for years, she said when she returned home, she wasn't aware of the "extent of the contamination."

"I've been exposing my children for an average of 15 years to all these contaminants, and potentially to developing cancer," said Fortin-Rondeau. "I say to myself, 'well, my God, if I knew this, I could have made different choices.'"

New biomonitoring program for employees

On Thursday, at the same time as the protest in Quebec City, the smelter held a news conference in Rouyn-Noranda to announce an arsenic biomonitoring program to evaluate the exposure of environmental contaminants among its employees, their social circles and families.

Measuring concentrations of substances found in participants' urine and fingernails, for example, the company says participation in the study will be voluntary.

To participate, employees and their families must contact the teams at Intrinsik — a science-based consulting firm.

As part of the announcement, the smelter's general manager, Vincent Plante, said 2018 and 2019 biomonitoring studies left questions unanswered and that the company is looking for more information on the "real internal exposure" of arsenic.

The research that has been done so far has provided a very select picture, says Mann.

"We don't have even a good handle on what the long-term consequences are," she said.

"Residents in Rouyn-Noranda have a higher level of lung cancer than the average Quebec population and yet have lower rates of tobacco smoking … is it the arsenic?"

As a resident of the city, Turcotte says she feels the smelter's announcement is part of a strategy to attempt to "dilute what we already know."

"We know the risks associated with the contaminants we're exposed to and they're sufficient for the government to enforce standards," she said.

"The people of Rouyn feel like they've been completely sacrificed … It's completely unfair."