3rd link project: doctors concerned about health

Prime Minister,

L’Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment (AQME) as well as the physicians who co-signed this letter – all of whom work in the Quebec or Lévis regions – would like to inform you of their concerns regarding the 3^e highway link between Quebec and Lévis.

This project will only increase our collective dependence on the automobile with all the negative health impacts associated with it, in addition to being an inadequate solution to the problems of highway congestion.

We are primarily concerned regarding the contribution of transportation to air quality issues, which emit 62% of air pollutants. Air pollution alone already causes 4,000 premature deaths per year in Quebec, with health costs of over $30 billion. Air pollution is increasingly viewed in connection with road traffic, and many air pollutants produced by motor vehicles are now widely recognized as harmful and dangerous to human health – particularly to socio-economically marginalized and racialized populations, who are often located near major highways.

Note in passing that the electrification of transportation is not a miracle solution, since a significant portion of air pollutants come from brakes, tires and the spreading of abrasives on the roads.

Nor can we ignore the adverse health effects of car addiction. By promoting a sedentary lifestyle, the latter is associated with several common diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. In addition, it contributes to the mineralization of the urban space, with materials such as asphalt, concrete and cobblestone. This phenomenon is strongly associated with urban heat islands, which are unevenly distributed and make certain neighborhoods stifling for local populations, especially during the summer.

Finally, we are concerned that the draft 3^e This link distracts us from our collective objectives in the fight once morest climate change, making it very difficult to achieve our greenhouse gas reduction targets. The construction of motorway infrastructures and the massive use of polluting materials such as concrete are the opposite of the actions to be taken in the face of the climate emergency.

Our organization encourages authorities to design projects that are good for health, the environment, mobility and public finances. The project of 3^e motorway link as currently proposed does not meet any of these criteria.

At a time when several North American cities are dismantling their urban highways for the health and well-being of the population, we urge your government to abandon the current highway tunnel project to turn to active and collective mobility projects with at heart the protection of the health of current populations and that of future generations.

Frédéric Tupinier Martin, coordinator of the Capitale-Nationale regional group of the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment (AQME), medical resident in public health and preventive medicine, CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale and a group of physicians.

Other signatories:

Frédéric Tupinier Martin, coordinator of the Capitale-Nationale regional group of the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment (AQME), medical resident in public health and preventive medicine, CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale

Julie Boulanger, family doctor, Clinique Maizerets

Frédérike Frigon-Tremblay, family doctor, GMF-U Maizerets

Thierry Arseneau, resident physician in public health and preventive medicine, Laval University

Bernard Fruteau de Laclos, biochemist, CHU de Québec-Laval University

Charles Boissonneault, family doctor, GMF-U Maizerets

Isabelle Poirier-Euel, family physician, Clinique Maizerets

Pierre Auger, physician, Regional Public Health Department of the Capitale-Nationale

François Aubin, physician, CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale

Sara Jeanne Pelletier, medical specialist in public health and preventive medicine, public health department of the Capitale-Nationale

Isabelle Goupil-Sormany, specialist in public health and preventive medicine CHU de Québec

Cécile Jeanmart, family doctor, GMF-U Maizerets

Marie-Claude Letellier, specialist in public health and preventive medicine, Cabinet

Catherine Trudel-Guy, medical student, Laval University

Emma Scott, medical extern, Laval University

Catherine Wolfe, medical resident in public health and preventive medicine, CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale

Nicolai Guzun, medical resident in public health and preventive medicine, public health department of the Capitale-Nationale

Martin Lalinec-Michaud, family physician, CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale

Victoria Bernardo, resident physician in psychiatry, CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale

Marianne Boisvert Moreau, medical resident in public health and preventive medicine, Laval University

Luc Bhérer, specialist in occupational medicine, CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale

Mariejka Beauregard, specialist in public health and preventive medicine, CHU de Québec

Slim Haddad, public health physician, CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale

Marilie Samson, psychiatry resident, Laval Hospital

Réal Morin, physician, National Institute of Public Health of Quebec

Caroline Laberge, family physician, CIUSSS Capitale Nationale, GMFU Laurier

Isabelle Collin, family physician, clinical associate, GMF-U Laurier and HSFA-hospitalization

Helene Landry, family physician, GMF-U Laurier

Marie-Odile Gilbert, family doctor (midwife), GMF-U Laurier and CHUL

Dominique Deschênes, family doctor, GMF-U Laurier

Soufiane Bensaidane, M.D., GMF-U Laurier

Anne-Frédérique Lambert-Slythe, physician, CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale

Johanne Elsener, veterinarian, Health Urbanity