Lives weighed down by an environment that is still polluted. New analyzes carried out by journalist Martin Boudot for the France 5 program “Vert de rage”, reveal that the inhabitants of Evin-Malmaison (Pas-de-Calais) are still exposed to alarming levels of lead, close to twenty years after the closure of the neighboring Metaleurop plant from Noyelles-Godault. “The problem is not solved, it is permanent”summarizes with franceinfo Jean-Marie Haguenoer, toxicologist and good connoisseur of the old factory.
For this survey, the “Vert de rage” team analyzed several soil samples, taken from the gardens of three inhabitants of Evin-Malmaison, at the Françoise-Dolto kindergarten, in the Gérard-Houllier stadium, on the former factory site and surrounding areas. According to French regulations, land for public utility containing more than 300 mg/kg of lead “must be evacuated to facilities provided and authorized for this purpose”. A limit pulverized on the site of the old factory – from 6,500 to 232,415 mg/kg recorded – but not only: 484.9 mg/kg in the nursery school, up to 623 mg/kg in the stadium, between 1096 and 1706 mg/kg in gardens.
These results were presented to the public at a public meeting on Friday 29 April. Settled in the city since 2010, Clarisse Kaczmarek, 40, did not think that “the pollution was still so present”. The notary had advised them not to eat the vegetables from their garden when they bought her house, but she and her husband, originally from the town, weren’t worried. “beyond measure”. In his garden, near the portico and the cabin of his two children aged 8 and 5, the “Vert de rage” team noted 1,457 mg / kg of lead, or 4.8 times the alert threshold. .
“This worries us a lot. Since their first steps, my children have walked on polluted ground, even at school.”
Clarisse Kaczmarekat franceinfo
Although her children are healthy, lead is a particularly dangerous pollutant for the youngest. “Epidemiological studies have shown, without any possible dispute, that it has a negative effect on neurobehavioral development: there is a drop in IQ which can be significant”, explains toxicologist Jean-Marie Haguenoer. This is commonly called lead poisoning.
To go further, “Vert de rage” analyzed hair samples from 29 children living in Evin-Malmaison. “The results clearly show that there is a presence of lead in the environment, but we cannot say at this stage if the levels are toxic and if they can cause health problems in the population”, analyzes the toxicologist Jennie Christense, of the Canadian laboratory which carried out these analyzes. She recommends “increased surveillance and further analysis”.
Jean-Marie Haguenoer knows the Metaleurop factory well. As early as the 1970s, he carried out lead detection analyzes for factory workers for occupational medicine. He then led a research program with the population, then a scientific committee set up by the prefecture for this pollution. Annual population monitoring campaigns have been carried out. But the closure of the factory in 2003, then the departure of the prefect who had initiated the scientific committee, put an end to this health surveillance in 2005. “I find it abnormal. There is a public health problem, the authorities must monitor it to see if it progresses or regresses”he tells us today.
/2022/04/28/phphpoJNI.jpg)
According to the estimate made by him and by the “Vert de rage” team, 5,815 children have been affected by lead poisoning since 1962 in the three towns surrounding the plant (Evin-Malmaison, Noyelles-Godault, Courcelles-lès-Lens). VSlarissa Kaczmarek hopes that the measures taken by “Vert de rage” will force the authorities to take the file in hand. “Things have to be put in place and they have to realize that the pollution is still present, even twenty years after the factory closed”, she believes. With the association For the general interest of Evinois (PIGE), she attacked the State before the administrative court. The plaintiffs were dismissed, but Clarisse Kaczmarek decided, with others, to appeal.
Contacted by “Vert de rage”, the prefecture did not respond. The Regional Health Agency of Hauts-de-France, for its part, replied that no case of lead poisoning had been reported to its services for ten years in these municipalities and that it had financed several actions, such as “handwashing education workshops” for children in kindergartens in the area.