Wind of panic among Internet users concerned about air quality, this Friday. Early in the morning, many residents of northern Moselle panicked when they read a post on an English-language blog. For good reason: one could observe there an index of the quality of the apocalyptic air. With a rate of 273 micrograms of fine particles per m³ of air, the worst index on the planet! Truthful. At this stage, some feared for their health but finally, a little hindsight on the situation would have made it possible to put things into perspective…
–
This content is blocked because you have not accepted cookies.
Clicking on ” I accept “cookies will be stored and you will be able to view the content .
Clicking on “I accept all cookies”you authorize the deposit of cookies for the storage of your data on our sites and applications for the purposes of personalization and advertising targeting.
You retain the option to withdraw your consent at any time.
Manage my choices
–
–
Contacted in vain all day Friday, Atmo Grand Est, the official air monitoring body, ended up delivering understandable explanations on Saturday morning. No, there was no pollution peak as calamitous as that published on various websites. The Atmo itself did not issue such an alarmist quality index. The explanation lies in the malfunctioning of several sensors located in central Thionville: three of them “went crazy”; the Atmo technicians went on site and indeed noted the disruption of the said sensors. As a result, the erroneous data were not validated and even less taken into account for the calculation of the now famous air quality index. The problem is that the raw data is published continuously on the Atmo site and therefore taken over by competing organizations before official validation. Hence the misunderstanding. We are saved.
What remains true, however, is that the air quality in Thionville has not been the best over the past three days: the official index (that of the Atmo) deteriorated between Wednesday and Friday, but the main reason was the excessive presence of ozone. Good news, this weekend the air has become breathable again.
