Private and public seniors’ homes on the Island of Montréal: Is their exposure to air pollution inequitable?
We analyzed the quality of environments in proximity to private and public seniors’ residences on the Island of Montréal in terms of the pollution caused by vehicle traffic. Two types of indicators were used to assess pollution levels, one considering the proximity of the residences to major roadways and the other measuring the concentrations of NO2 in a 200 m radius around them. Our results show that both private and public seniors’ residences are more often located close to major roadways than housing in general or other seniors’ housing. However, private seniors’ residences had lower concentrations of NO2 in comparison with these other two groups, whereas we found the inverse to be true for public seniors’ residences. This stems largely from their respective distribution across the urban landscape.