Smog on the decline: Montreal's air quality best since 2002

If Montrealers are breathing easier of late, there's a reason: air quality in the city is the best it's been in more than a decade.

The lower levels of smog andair pollution, however, aren't entirely because ofchanges made locally.

Environmental advocates say the improvementsaremostlydue to the shuttering of Ontario's coal-fired power plants.

According to data compiled by Radio-Canada, 2016 was the best year in terms of air quality since 2002.

The number of days in Montreal where air quality was considered "poor" and dangerous to public health also dropped byabout 60 per cent in one year.

In 2016, a total of 26 days with bad air quality wasrecorded in Montreal, which is a sharp contrastcomparedto 64in 2015.

Smog daysin the city are also on the decline. In total, there were only five days with smog warnings in 2016 and they were all in the winter.

Still room for improvement

The Association qubcoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphrique, a provincialenvironmental group, says the main reason for the decline in air pollution is the closure of five coal-fired power plants in Ontario.

"It has a direct and measurable impact," said president Andr Blisle.

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Blisle says that while more can be done to reduce pollution such as cracking down on wood-burning stoves,that betterair qualityis here to stay due to the closure of the Ontario plants and the Shell refinery in Montreal's east end in 2014.

"It's major, because these plants were a heavy burden on the atmosphere," said Blisle.

The closureof several coal-fired power plants in the American Midwest were also a factor, he said.

Franois Reeves, a cardiologist and professor at the Universit de Montral, told Radio-Canada that only 40 per cent of the city's air pollution is generated locally.

Ontario and the United States are the source of 60 per cent of Montreal's air pollution.

However, Reeves said that there is still room for improvement. The data shows that number of days where Montreal's air quality was given a grade of "acceptable" didn't change from 2015 to 2016.

He adds that poor air quality poses health risks to Montrealers suffering from chronic illnesses such as heart andlong-term pulmonary diseases.

Montreal's public health agency reports that 1,500 people die annually from poor air quality in the city.

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