François Therrien of the Montreal Public Health Department summarized the results of various studies that clearly show the negative effects of air pollution upon our health. Seniors, children and anyone living within 200 meters of a high traffic road are at particularly risk. Car emissions have been shown to have a significant effect on air quality which in turn, results in dire consequences upon the public's health.

- 2006 Annual Report on the Health of the population: "Urban Transportation, a Question of Health"

• Over the past ten years, an increasing number of studies have shown that people who live in cities with high levels of air pollution tend to suffer from higher mortality rates due to cardio-pulmonary disease, and to lung cancer, than populations living in cities with lower levels of pollution.


• Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of atmospheric pollution, as compared with adults:
  • their immune and pulmonary systems are still developping
  • they have greater lung volume capacity
  • they spend more time outside



• Several studies have focused attention on the health impact on schoolchildren whose schools are located near a high traffic area: Rates of asthma and other respiratory symptoms increase in conjunction with traffic density and with higher concentrations levels of car emissions.

  Another concern is the unforeseen and sudden onset of asthma amongst children who had no prior history of the disease.



• Researchers in Holland found that seniors (between the ages of 55 and 69), who lived in proximity of a major traffic artery, were twice as likely to die from cardiopulmonary disease than seniors who live further from high traffic areas.


• Seniors over 60 who live near major arteries are more likely to need hospitalization than seniors who live on quieter streets.


• Not surprisingly, a higher percentage of lower income families tend to live along major traffic arteries.


• It is these same families from low income neighborhoods who were the most displaced and disrupted due to the mega highway construction projects of the sixties and seventies.

rest of translation coming soon

Neighborhood Impact

Pierre Brisset, architect

with the Groupe de Recherche Urbaine Hochelaga-Maisonneuve (GRUHM)

Click here to read their Manifesto