Three years after the Lubrizol fire in Rouen (Seine-Maritime), “We are not doing everything we can to prevent an accident of this type from happening”said this Monday, September 26 on franceinfo Paul Poulain, specialist in industrial risks and author of “Everything can explode” published by Fayard when, contrary to what the government had announced at the time, he did not increase controls sites, Seveso in particular, by 50% due to a lack of staff, according to a survey by Release. “There are 1,300 extremely dangerous sites, said Seveso, and 500,000 installations classified for the protection of the environment, of which 460,000 are never inspected”assured Paul Poulain.
franceinfo: Have we learned the lessons, three years after Lubrizol?
Paul Poulain, industrial risk specialist: With the article published in Release, we can probably ask the question, because the inspection staff of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, which are responsible for controlling industrial sites, have fallen from 1,600 to around 1,520, or 80 less. Whereas two years ago, for the anniversary of the Lubrizol fire, an increase of 50 people in the workforce was announced on the contrary.
At the time, Barbara Pompili, the Minister for Ecological Transition, announced a 50% increase in controls on industrial sites. Have we achieved this goal?
It turns out that we will not reach this target of 50% more checks, which is explained by the lack of staff. And it turns out that the inspectors of the Department of the Environment and Development and Housing (DREAL) are overworked. More than half want to quit their job to do something else. Industrial risks are always minimized by public decision-makers who do not give the means to State services to do their job well. After a while, we can understand that workers in these institutions are planning to do something else.
What should be done concretely?
Services should be strengthened to give them more time on industrial sites. A study compared the application of the Seveso directive in France, Italy and Germany. It turns out that on average, the French teams spend four days on a Seveso file, in Italy they spend 9 days, ie twice as long, and in Germany 20 days.
France needs more advanced technical checks on its facilities?
Yes, because manufacturers do not necessarily know these subjects of industrial risks well, especially on medium-sized sites which are not among the Seveso classified sites, which are only classified installations for the protection of the environment. As a reminder, there are 1,300 extremely dangerous sites, known as Seveso, and 500,000 installations classified for the protection of the environment, of which 460,000 are never inspected by State services.
Do we know how to avoid a new Lubrizol today?
Every day we avoid a new Lubrizol and fortunately, thanks to the emergency services, thanks to safety skills on industrial sites. But on the other hand, we do not make every effort to prevent an accident of this type from happening. On the one hand there is chance, of course, on which we cannot do much, but on the other hand on everything we could do, we are very, very far from the mark.