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Concerned for the health of the employees and children who come to play there every day, a gardener at the Parc Floral de Paris has alerted franceinfo on the #AlertPollution platform.
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"Thousands of little hands scraped the earth and may have encountered chemicals." Pierre * has been a gardener at the Parc Floral in Paris for fifteen years. Worried to hear rumors of possible heavy metal soil pollution, he contacted franceinfo through Operation #AlertPollution. "Soil tests for recent development work have revealed very high levels of lead, zinc and mercury in the soil around the playground, which is home to thousands of children every year., he reveals. We are working on it and we have not had more information than that. "
Contacted by Franceinfo, the Paris City Hall, manager of this 30-hectare park that welcomes each year a million visitors in the 12th arrondissement, indeed explains having conducted badyzes in early 2018, within the framework of a "project of development of a parcel of this site in 'forest garden'". The place was to house fruit trees, berry shrubs and various plants. "Although it was not planned that the fruits from the plantations would be offered for consumption, the land in this plot was sampled with four samples sent for badysis to the Agronomy Laboratory of the Directorate. green spaces and the environment of the City of Paris ", details the administration. A usual procedure in this kind of development, but which has highlighted disturbing substances.
The four samples were collected on March 21, 2018 in a wooded area, lined with benches and located in front of the unusual Garden. The area is particularly popular with families: there is not far, a rope course, a playground and many small paths.
Consulted by Franceinfo, badyzes carried out by the City of Paris in this area have detected copper (171 parts per million), lead (162.3) and mercury (1.24) levels above the regulatory limit values. imposed by the decree of 8 January 1998. They also revealed cadmium (0.75) and zinc (250) levels higher than the indicative values from the Interregional Epidemiology Cell (CIRE) note in Ile-de-France of July 3, 2006, as shown in the card of one of the samples below.
"Our park has eco-labels, but underneath there is potentially dangerous land"Pierre irritates. The gardener today says he is particularly worried about his health and that of his colleagues. Tomatoes, salads, zucchini … "For years, park staff have been eating vegetable vegetables", especially during the lunch break. "One of these vegetable gardens is located right in front of the polluted area, in the unusual garden.Since we learned that the soil was not great, we changed our techniques.It avoids planting in the ground"explains Pierre. He says that employees even built small mounds "with good soil" to grow their vegetables.
"These rates are, in absolute terms, harmful to health"says Jean Lefèvre, doctor and president of the Association Santé Environnement France (Asef), asked by franceinfo about these results. In case of'"chronic exposure requiring prolonged contact", the lead is "Carcinogen" and can be harmful to the nervous system, blood and kidneys. Cadmium is also carcinogenic and carries risks of "renal and bone toxicity". Finally, mercury is dangerous for the kidneys and the nervous system. These three metals are also "endocrine disruptors"adds the doctor.
More alarming, Jean Lefèvre emphasizes that children are "more sensitive" to the presence of these elements. This is why the badytical laboratory specifies in its report of March 2018 forwarded to the mayor that "the possible presence of young children (<6 years) on the site would require a quantitative badessment of health risks." Asked on this point, the town hall did not indicate whether these additional badyzes were in progress.
For the President of the Asef, "It seems obvious that children should not play in polluted areas". Because, as stated by Public Health France, the smallest are largely exposed to soil pollution. By ingestion of soil "during games on the floor" or through "objects they bring to the mouth"but also by "inhalation of dust emitted by polluted soils".
Where can the detected substances come from? Pierre advances a track: "The floral park was built on the former cartoucherie Vincennes." This factory of small equipment for the artillery occupied, between 1874 and 1945, a total of 22 hectares on this part of the Bois de Vincennes. The cartoucherie was spread "to the event space in the west and to the ticket office in the north play area", describes Martin Barros, co-author of Vauban, the intelligence of the territory (Nicolas Chaudun editions).
Did this military activity leave any traces? "It is difficult to know if the observed soil pollution is related to this ancient use or the quality of the land brought to the site at the time of the development of the floral park" in the late 1960s, responds the City of Paris to franceinfo. "These lands came from the old Parisian vegetable belt on which was spread sewage or sludge, themselves contaminated a long time ago "explains the City.
Since then, the city has implemented a systematic control of the quality of land used in parks and gardens, but this was not the case at the time of the creation of the floral park.City of Parisat franceinfo
For his part, Pierre denounces the lack of information given to visitors and employees. "We learned this from a gardener's gardener's mouth.In the beginning, it was one of our superiors who said it during a discussion.He talked about 'rotten soil' that needed to be changed. Then we saw them change the earth, but there was no information meeting "he laments.
Hardly the results received, the town hall however decided to abandon its permaculture project on the site concerned. "The soil in place has [également] remodeled and covered with a geotextile to isolate the elements of pollution ", she says to franceinfo. Clean soil has been deposited "on a thickness of 60 cm".
What rebadure Jean Lefèvre, because the main thing is not to be in contact with these soils loaded with heavy metals. It moderates however: "The establishment of a geotextile and a layer of healthy earth with vegetation cover may be sufficient, subject to maintenance and monitoring." Pierre, he is not so serene. "Who tells us that 50 meters away, the land is clean?" In my opinion, there was no badysis on all the parcels of the garden.
* The name has been changed
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