Worrying level of lead in schools, children with lead poisoning: the results of two analyzes released on Tuesday by the ARS and the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais reveal that the surroundings of the Metaleurop plant remain poisoned, twenty years after its closure. arousing the growing concern of residents.
These analyzes were announced in June by the prefecture, with the aim of “responding to the concern” of the population about the health consequences of the operation of this factory which for decades has rejected heavy metals (lead and cadmium) in the air.
A lead poisoning screening campaign was launched this summer by the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Hauts-de-France in the municipalities of Evin-Malmaison, Courcelles-lès-Lens, Noyelles-Godault, Leforest and Dourges . .
It reveals seven cases of lead poisoning (a lead level above 50 µg / liter of blood) and 61 high impregnations (25 to 50 µg / l) out of 889 children tested.
These results remain partial because they affect only 11.7% of the target population, the ARS specifies in its press release on Tuesday.
Families of children with lead poisoning “were visited at home” for “investigations,” explains the ARS, noting that for three children, “at least one other source of potential lead exposure, related to lifestyle or habitat, has been identified “.
Families of 61 high-rate children will be “given explanations of possible sources of lead exposure and recommendations”.
– “What we feared” –
The prefecture, for its part, announced that the lead content in the soil of five surrounding schools (in the first 5 cm) was higher than the limit of 300 mg / kg set by the authorities.
The maximum is 995 mg / kg in the Evin-Malmaison Léon-Blum school. Two other schools in the city are affected, as well as two factories in Courcelles-lès-Lens.
The authorities have recommended “preventing access to uncovered land (bare land, meadows) of various spaces that can be very frequented by children”, explains the prefecture in its statement.
The mayors of the two municipalities have put in place “provisional devices” since the beginning of the school year to “prohibit access to these spaces” and school managers have informed families “of the screening to be carried out”, he adds. .
“This is what we feared. It has been said for years that the pollution has not stopped,” Bruno Adolphi, president of an association of residents that originated a complaint against the state, reacted to AFP on Tuesday. “It is imperative to clean the floors where these heavy metals are found.”
Their lawyer, Me David Deharbe, who also represents the urban community of Hénin-Carvin, wrote to the prefect of Pas-de-Calais to ask for “safety measures for children” and a diagnosis on the “source of soil pollution” .
– “Let them get their bullshit” –
A father from Courcelles-lès-Lens told AFP that his 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter were both contaminated, the former at a level above 50 µg / l.
He says he received the results in the mail, then a phone call from ARS “to minimize them”.
“They made it clear that it wasn’t serious, that there wasn’t too much danger,” he said. Her children, on the other hand, undergo blood tests every three months.
Lead poisoning, the “lead disease”, affects the nervous system, bone marrow and kidneys.
“As a parent, I feel like I haven’t been able to protect myself,” said the 32-year-old, who requested anonymity. “We are waiting for (the authorities) to lend their bullshit for leaving the polluted earth.”
When the Metaleurop plant closed in 2003, the area was considered the most polluted in France. Five municipalities (24,000 people) have been affected by a land use restriction since 1999.
A team from the “Vert de rage” investigative program on France 5, which investigated this pollution, estimated at the end of April that 5,815 children could have been affected by lead poisoning between 1962 and 2020, including a hundred for 20 years.
The prefecture then replied that only one case had been recorded in the area for 10 years.
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