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Quebec Air Issues CampaignQuebec Doctors Join Foundation in Clean Air Project
Version Française
Air pollution causes an estimated 4,000 premature deaths in Quebec each year. In order to combat this alarming trend, Quebec physicians became the third group (following physicians in Ontario and BC) to launch a province-wide Air Issues Campaign with the David Suzuki Foundation. View News Release.   Dr. David Suzuki, in partnership with the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec, the Montreal Public Health Department, and the Quebec College of Family Physicians launched this project at a media conference in Montreal in October 2001. As a result, more than 8,400 Quebec physicians received full colour posters and leaflets detailing the negative impacts of poor air quality and climate change on human health. Physicians across the province are now helping to educate Quebec citizens on the serious health hazards of uncontrolled burning of wood and fossil fuels such as coal, oil, gasoline and natural gas.  The project is based on the ground-breaking report Taking Our Breath Away: the health effects of air pollution and climate change written by two Canadian medical epidemiologists.View Executive Summary (144K) | Full Report (677K) How Smog and Air Pollution Damage the Human Body When you breathe in air pollution particles they can attack and inflame your tissues all the way down the respiratory tract. Because these particles are so small, they can go deep inside your lungs and damage the smallest airways called bronchioles. As the particles approach the cells lining the lungs, they are attacked by macrophages, part of the lungs' defence system. In turn, the macrophages trigger the release of inflammatory cells from the bone marrow. In some instances, toxic particles can destroy macrophages. Some particles make it all the way into the cells lining the lung, causing further inflammation that can hinder breathing. Particles may also enter the bloodstream. Together with inflammatory mediators, they cause serious effects on the nervous system, as well as the heart and lungs.  Pollution particles are inhaled and approach the cells. Particles may also enter the bloodstream. Together with inflammatory cells from the bone marrow, they cause serious effects on the nervous system as well as the heart and lungs. Ozone, another pollutant found in smog, can also attack the cells lining the lungs. These cells can leak and die, and are temporarily replaced by a different type of cell. Persistent injury causes lung tissue to become inflamed and this can aggravate asthma and increase infection rates. Animal studies indicate long-term, high-level ozone exposure makes cells and other tissue lining the lung thicker. This makes the lung function less effectively. Air pollution has the greatest effect on children, the elderly and those with respiratory and heart problems. Here is what air pollution can do to our health: View video showing how the burning of coal, oil and gas harms our lungs. As if the resultant dirty air were not bad enough, burning fossil fuels creates a second threat: global warming. According to scientists, higher temperatures from global warming trigger chemical reactions that make existing air pollution worse. By addressing global warming as a serious environmental and health concern, we can begin to take the steps to mitigate the negative impacts caused by burning fossil fuels. Here’s what you can do: Want to learn more? Explore these sites. (The site link will open in a new browser window, please close the window to return to the David Suzuki Foundation site)
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