Toulouse (AFP)
Seized of the problem of arsenic pollution in the Aude resulting from mining activities, President Emmanuel Macron raised a "worrying" situation, in response to Senator Roland Courteau, we learned Monday in the entourage of the last.
"The situation you are talking about is worrying," Macron wrote in his response to the Socialist Senator, who was given a copy by AFP. He assured Mr. Courteau "that everything will be done to protect the people".
This letter is dated August 16, after the announcement by the Regional Health Agency Occitanie that 38 children living in the Orbiel Valley near the former Salsigne gold mine and arsenic had rates of arsenic above average.
This announcement, in the framework of a health surveillance set up after the discovery of first cases at the end of June, confirmed residents' fears about the risk of run-off of toxic waste from the mine after the deadly floods in the department in October. 2018.
"With regard to the preparation of the new school year and the depollution of the sites", the head of the State specifies having "asked the services of the prefecture of the Aude to ensure a close follow-up and to account for it regularly to the ministers concerned and elected of the territory ".
However, he assures that the situation is "locally followed" by the prefecture and the ARS, and that in the face of "the environmental risk identified since the closure in 2004" of the mine, "aggravated by the floods", a "follow-up" and appropriate management measures have been put in place ".
Mr. Macron also states that "to date, no acute pathology has been reported".
The socialist senator had seized the head of state "to request a public health investigation", after first addressing the Minister of Health, Agnès Buzyn, it was said in his entourage.
"There are the children but there are also the inhabitants and all those, volunteers, firefighters ... who helped clean the area after the floods," said the same source.
Also mobilized on this issue, the second senator of the Aude, Gisèle Jourda (PS) was for its part to be received Tuesday by Ms. Buzyn.
According to the ARS, "arsenic is a carcinogenic toxic" in case of chronic exposure, with also possible effects including dermatological, cardiovascular and respiratory.
© 2019 AFP