• Tweeter

  • republish

AirParif will now be able to monitor the presence of ultrafine particles in the Ile de France region. Getty Images

This Wednesday, September 18th, is the national day of the quality of the air! If the presence of some particles is already monitored, others, smaller ones, escape the regulation. The ANSES health agency has just pointed out, this summer, ultrafine particles that have adverse effects on health. They are still little known but the air quality monitoring body, Airparif, has just inaugurated an instrument that measures them.

At the headquarters of Airparif , the president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pecresse, has moved to the inauguration of this device that measures ultrafine particles. " What can be the effects of these ultrafine particles? ask the president. Intutively, we say that the largest must be the most damaging , but this is not the case? "

Response from the Deputy Director of Airparif, Hélène Marfin: " We have a respiratory system that filters, which limits the passage of larger particles. And the finer the particles, the more they pass through this dam. And they go very far in the pulmonary alveoli. This summer, ANSES has released a long study on the effect on health of these ultrafine particles and in particular, they have identified risks in relation to cardiovascular diseases. "

Advance the term legislation

Airparif hopes to install several aircraft in Ile-de-France, close to sources of pollution - airports, roads or farms. It's about monitoring these particles on a permanent basis to accumulate data and ultimately pushing legislation forward.

Report by Christine Siebert 18/09/2019 - by RFI Play