It’s been six weeks since young Quimper residents put their feet in the water. The 10 titular lifeguards who work at the two swimming pools in the town are on strike. Their demand is clear and clear: they want their daily exposure to chlorine to be recognized in the list of hardships of their work. For its part, the QBO community, Quimper Western Brittany, considers that this exposure does not present any risks.
Excessively low chlorine thresholds
No risk because the waters of the Quimper swimming pools are 6 times less charged with chlorine than the national legal threshold. Gaëlle Lozachmeur is the Deputy Director General for Solidarity and Citizen Relations at QBO: “The maximum threshold is 0.6 milligrams per liter of water. We have made heavy investments to install a system of dechloramination. Today we are at an exposure of 0.1 milligrams per litre.”
The water is analyzed twice per semester. The agents have also been tested, explains Vincent Nicol. This is QBO’s sports director: “In 2019 we made observations of the airways of the agents and they showed that there were no signs suggestive of chloramine contamination at the moment.
We do not negotiate with health
On the side of the large basin, Jean-Rieul Brusq no longer provides lessons since March 14 “We do not negotiate, somewhere, with health. The 10 lifeguards are mobilized for this strike”. He has been a lifeguard for 24 years and the paragraph in the pool register on health he walks past every day: “Irritation of the eyes, allergies, respiratory problems. All these symptoms are caused by chloramines. It is well noted that we are still in an aggressive, particular environment.”
The Quimper also thinks of future generations: “I am at the end of the course, but young people who pay attention to their health no longer want to let this pass.”
Reassure citizens
The community fears that this movement will create mistrust among users. Vincent Nicol: “The risk of this strike movement is to break confidence in public facilities. These are the ones that are the most watched, monitored and controlled” and Gaëlle Lozachmeur to complete: “It would be to recognize an exposure to a risk that does not exist in our opinion, since we respect the standards set by law.”
Jean-Rieul Brusq specifies that this strike “not [leur] obviously not fun”. And he details: “We already have difficulties that are recognized as noise, staggered hours or working on public holidays. But these are not health problems. Here we are talking about people. We do not want to enter into conflict or throw the stone on anyone, no one is at fault. We just want to add chloramines to this list.” A list of criteria, subjections, arduousness which may also be discussed during a future pension reform.
Since the beginning of the week, Monday May 2, the strike movement has spread to schools. 400 primary school students are concerned. Masters swimmers do not close the idea of extend it to colleges and high schools if they are not heard. A meeting is scheduled for Thursday 5 May. The community plans compensation for families affected by this strike.