The Robin des Bois Association had asked for a postponement of the school year, considering that the risks of lead contamination were still too high.

The first deputy mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, rejected Wednesday a request for postponement of the school year from the Robin des Bois association, saying "nothing (justified) this position", lead concentration rates in schools, according to him "reassuring" after cleaning.

"There is no risk"

The fire of Notre-Dame de Paris, on April 15, melted several hundred tons of lead, which was found especially in the frame of the spire and the roof, and high concentrations of this toxic metal had been found in some schools around the cathedral. "All summer has been spent doing measurements" in schools and nurseries and cleaning them, pleaded Emmanuel Grégoire on France Info. "The three schools that had atypies" and even those "where there were no abnormal measures" have been "a thorough decontamination", pleaded the first deputy.

"We always said we would not take any chances, so if I can tell you today that all schools will open, it's because there is no risk," he said, saying that "all rates that are incurred are below the health thresholds".

Robin des Bois calls for expertise

The environmental association Robin des Bois, which had lodged a complaint against X in July, accusing the authorities of being slow to react and lacking transparency in the management of lead pollution, said that "the information recently released by the town hall of Paris are not reliable "and asked Wednesday by release the postponement of the back to school.

Except for the establishments in rue Saint-Benoît, in the 6th arrondissement, whose inner courtyards were entirely renovated during the summer, the other schools and nurseries were only "purposely cleaned by cleaning agents" who are not specialists in decontamination, denounced to AFP the spokesman of the association Jacky Bonnemains, which requires that "experts validate these decontamination operations".

The association also argues that of the 55,000 children and adolescents enrolled in the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th arrondissements, less than 200 have benefited from blood lead levels - an analysis of the level of lead in the blood. The Regional Health Agency (ARS) will publish at the beginning of September the complete review of the new blood lead levels carried out in Paris during the month of August.

A third child with too high a lead rate near Notre-Dame

A third child educated near the Notre-Dame cathedral has been detected with too high blood lead, health authorities told AFP on Wednesday, while stressing that the contamination had "a priori" taken place. his home. Its rate was 52 micrograms of lead per liter of blood, just above the mandatory reporting threshold for lead poisoning (50).

Regarding the second child measured above this threshold, whose case had been made public on August 6, the survey found "low sources of contamination in housing and moderate in the school," reports Aurélien Rousseau , General Manager of the ARS Ile-de-France. He warned, however, that "it is not certain that (the contamination) comes from Our Lady" because it can be linked to pre-existing soil pollution. His school, located rue Saint-Benoît, has benefited from a thorough decontamination "during the summer, he added.

The first case was already known. It did not result in any particular therapeutic follow-up but involved regular follow-up.