an investigating judge investigates lead pollution

Four years after the gigantic fire of Notre-Dame de Paris, which occurred on April 15, 2019, an investigating judge is investigating following a complaint which considers that the authorities did not take all the precautions to avoid contamination at the lead, learned franceinfo from the Paris prosecutor’s office, Wednesday April 12. On July 5, 2021, the Henri Pézerat association and the Departmental Union of CGT unions in Paris filed a complaint for endangering the lives of others. Initial investigations were then carried out, specifies the Paris prosecutor’s office. Then, on the constitution of civil parties, in June 2022, an investigating judge was seized of the same facts. “Thus the investigations and the search for their fair legal perimeter continue”, specifies, Wednesday, the parquet floor.

More than 400 tons of lead gone up in smoke

In the gigantic fire that ravaged the cathedral, more than 400 tons of lead from the roof and the spire of Notre-Dame went up in smoke, according to the complaint filed in July 2021, written by lawyer François Lafforgue, and in which the plaintiffs believe that no sufficient measures were taken to protect the health of local residents and site workers during the three months following the fire.

“We finally obtained reports from the Labor Inspectorate which show that the measures to protect workers, in particular, had not been respected during all the months following the fire”explained François Lafforgue to France Inter in 2021. “Despite the numerous and often considerable overruns of the applicable thresholds in terms of lead concentrations in dust, the City of Paris has refrained from alerting the parents of pupils to the risks incurred by their children. No real recommendation as to to the basic hygiene measures to be adopted has also not been made”also denounced the complaint, also brought by parents of students.