Did the Regional Health Agency manipulate the figures to improve the ranking of Breton beaches?

On the Iroise coast, in Brittany, Penfoul beach. Laurent Le Berre, a native of the place, has spent entire days there since the end of the 1990s, in the water and on his surfboard. And for more than twenty years, he has been worried about the pollution of this beach surrounded by pig farms, whose peaks correspond to the spreading of slurry in the surrounding area. How can bathing water regularly contaminated by fecal matter be classified as “good quality” by the Regional Health Agency (ARS)?

In 2016, he had the idea of ​​documenting through photos the information available at the entrance to Penfoul beach. The results of water analyzes carried out by the ARS are displayed on the swimming panel. That summer, there were several days, indicated by red boxes, when poor results caused the beach to be closed. But when, at the end of the season, Laurent Le Berre consults the website of the Ministry of Health, surprise…

No pollution is reported for its commune of Landunvez. Day after day, bathing water is classified as being of “good” quality. By comparing the red boxes appearing in his photos and the results transmitted to the Ministry of Health, Laurent Le Berre notes that those of “bad” days, with pollution, have been replaced by those, suitable, of the next day or the day after that.

The following summer, he decided to extend his investigation to other Breton beaches, and to take photos of all the swimming signs. And he realizes that “the practices of the ARS (…) detected at Penfoul beach are generalized throughout Brittany”.

“Rather than seeking good bathing water quality at all costs, we sought at all costs to improve the rankings… it’s not at all the same thing.”

Laurent Le Berre, whistleblower,

in “Special Envoy”

Could the ARS have manipulated these results so that Breton beaches remain well classified? And for what reason? For Laurent Le Berre, it is very obvious that“no economic sector has any interest in saying that bathing waters are polluted”. In the commune of Landunvez, without these modifications, the water quality would have been classified as insufficient and Penfoul beach would have risked closure.

With his association Eaux et Rivières de Bretagne, Laurent Le Berre obtained the condemnation of the ARS, which did not wish to comment in “Envoyéspecial”. The court ordered that it correct the rankings of all Breton beaches by including data that had not been taken into account. But a year later, the new rankings are always waiting…

Eaux et Rivières de Bretagne has therefore published its own map of France of polluted beaches, based on the stricter standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Health Agency (ANSES). According to this classification, contested by the Ministry of Health, one in five is regularly contaminated by fecal bacteria.

Excerpt from “Under the flag, pollution?” a report to see in “Special Envoy” on June 20, 2024.

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