Le Figaro Nice
The mystery has been hovering in the streets of several districts of Nice for almost ten days.
Invisible, and above all very inconvenient, this mystery is in fact a perfume, or rather a nauseating smell, which invades the streets of the city almost daily, from dawn.
Between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m., many local residents are exposed to this inexplicable (and to date unexplained) olfactory nuisance.
This emanation is not concentrated on a specific sector but seems to follow a vertical trajectory which starts from the Ariane district and goes down to the port of Nice, passing through the Cimiez district, the Libération, or even the old town and the Pasteur hospital.
Some seem to pick up the smell of gas, rotten eggs and sulfur.
Others think they smell of gasoline and hydrocarbons, while still others think they smell a burning smell.
One thing is certain, since February 5, the air quality observatory in the Southern region, Atmosud, has collected some 144 reports from local residents.
Including 77 just for Monday.
While the situation may make you smile, it is taken very seriously, in light of the problems that accompany the reports.
According to Atmosud, 50% of them are associated
“with symptoms such as headache, difficulty breathing, irritation of the nose and eyes…”
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Reinforced surveillance system
If the reports stopped Tuesday morning, they resumed in the afternoon, since 3 p.m.
In cooperation with the Nice Metropolis, AtmoSud announces that it has put in place a reinforced monitoring system
“to identify the components causing these nuisances.”
The Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (SDIS) is also involved in research to identify the cause of these olfactory nuisances.
In a press release, Atmosud said it had identified a source
“north-east of Nice”
thanks to the connection between the reports and Météo France data.
Without further details at this stage.
On Monday, the mayor of Nice and president of the Nice Côte d'Azur Metropolis, for his part, took up his pen to summon the prefect Hugues Moutouh to indicate to him
"rapidly the measures that [he intends] to implement to protect our populations and put an end to these nuisances.”
Christian Estrosi assures that he has received 500 reports from his constituents in the geographical area concerned.
And to indicate that
"as soon as these nuisances became known, the management of the Metropolis [...] mobilized to find the origin."
Thus, checks would have made it possible, he further assures,
“to confirm that the Ariane’s energy recovery unit was not in question.”
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Investigation and controls
The City of Nice, which has contacted the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Paca and the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing (DREAL), would like an investigation and all the necessary controls are carried out
“in order to guarantee that these odors do not present any risk to the population”
.
To the prefect, the councilor asks in this sense that checks take place on all installations classified for environmental protection and likely to generate odors
"in particular industrial activities in the Paillon valley, these falling within the police power of the State.”
Contacted, the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture indicates that it should comment on the situation and the measures it could take by the end of the day.