High interest in air quality data

Two weeks after the installation of fine particle sensors to better measure air quality in Limoilou, the data is being monitored very closely by interested citizens.

• Read also: Limoilou: citizens install 75 air sensors

“This project is definitely more popular than it could have been. We still have access to data on the internet. I was skeptical about the places chosen, but I can’t wait to see what will come out, ”explains Séréna Bilodeau, who received the first sensor on her balcony in Vieux-Limoilou, on the 1^D Street, near the motorway ramps.

Holder of a bachelor’s degree in the environment, the young woman frequently consults the data available online.

Variations

“Here, it’s never the same results as elsewhere, so that tells me it’s really disgusting. There were three days above the norm with a direct impact on my physical condition, ”says M^me Bilodeau, who nevertheless keeps a reservation on the interpretation of the results which fluctuate a lot according to the hours and the days.

An alarming result could come from a release from the incinerator, but also from a one-time event such as a major fire occurring nearby.

The citizen also fears that future studies will be based on sensors positioned in cooler places, and do not really represent the extent of the problem.

Very close to the installed sensor, the sofa on his balcony seems to be covered in particles. “I pass a magnet and it sticks on it. It’s metal. There are so many residues that we would be able to put them in a jar to analyze them, ”she adds.

Move

After two years in the district, Séréna Bilodeau chose to leave the district on 1^er July, even if his company is called Limoiland.

“It’s a bereavement. I still have black feet and the house is still dirty. I’m going to Saint-Malachie on the edge of the mountain. »

Citing the “insufficiency” of government data, the Limoil’Air project will be deployed until June 2023.

Professor and researcher Guillaume Simard has thus fixed the device that will collect data on air quality.

Powered by electricity, each sensor is connected to the wifi network and data is sent on a regular basis, every two or three minutes.

Some 75 households in Vieux-Limoilou, Lairet and Maizerets are equipped with sensors.

The project will cost $40,000, financed mainly by the Caisse Desjardins and by the budget envelope of Sol Zanetti, deputy in solidarity with the sector.