In addition to its ecological consequences, the fire at the Lubrizol factory in Rouen did not spare the health of the exposed population.
On the contrary, the incident which occurred in September 2019 would even have had a "negative effect" on the "psychological health" of the inhabitants of the surroundings, assures a study of Public Health France (SPF) published on Monday.
“There is an alteration in mental health a year after” the fire, underlined Franck Golliot, deputy director of SPF during a meeting on the fire in the prefecture.
To reach its conclusions, the national agency investigated 5,300 people representative of the 340,000 inhabitants of the 133 affected municipalities.
Headaches, discomfort, dizziness ...
Consequences on physical health were observed: 62% of residents experienced at least one symptom or health problem that they attributed to the fire.
In detail, nearly 38% of adults experienced tingling of the nostrils, throat, tongue, runny nose or nasal obstruction;
37% headaches, faintness or dizziness, 15% cough or bronchial congestion or difficulty in breathing or an asthma attack.
Likewise, the psychological health of the inhabitants was not spared: many witnesses reported episodes of stress and anxiety after the incident. In all, 17% of adults who experienced at least one health problem used the health care system.
“Why did it take a year to launch the sanitary study”, whereas in the United States, where a factory of the Lubrizol group was affected by a fire in Rockton in mid-June, “they are already to launch health monitoring, ”said Christophe Holleville, secretary of the Union of Lubrizol Victims during the meeting.
In Rockton, the choice was made to "let it burn" for several days, which "forced the population to be evacuated over 1.5 km", while in Rouen the fire was extinguished in 24 hours, defended the prefect Pierre-André Durand.
In Rouen, the population had not been evacuated.
Nearly 10,000 tonnes of chemicals burned
“Why not have chosen a toxicological approach?
", With blood analyzes of the population, also asked Nathalie Le Meur, pharmacist biologist of the association Rouen Respire.
This would be "irrelevant", replied Sébastien Denys of SPF because there is "no objective element in favor of a long-term overexposure of local populations" to dangerous substances likely to come from the fire ( hydrocarbons, dioxins).
"How do you explain that we find xenene, ethylbenzene and toluene in breast milk, that we observe a peak after the fire and then it decreases?"
», Reacted Nathalie Le Meur.
Nearly 10,000 tonnes of chemicals burned during the Lubrizol and Normandie Logistique fire on September 26, 2019 in Rouen.
