Rouen (AFP)

What will ultimately be the impact of the Lubrizol disaster in Rouen on the health of the population? To find out a lot, they are asking for a blood sampling campaign. "Prematurely", answers for the time the state.

"Later we will take samples, less we will have an idea of ​​what the population was exposed at the time of the accident," said the MEP EELV and elected from the city of Rouen David Cormand, interviewed by AFP .

The blood tests "is what allowed to measure the impact of the disaster of Seveso" in Italy in 1976, adds Olivier Blond, president of the association Respire which with the lawyer and former minister Corinne Lepage s' is preparing to file a lawsuit against X for endangering the lives of others after the fire at the Seveso plant high threshold of 26 September.

On July 10, 1976, dioxin had largely escaped from a factory in this municipality in northern Italy. The blood of thousands of people had been analyzed in the wake, told AFP Professor Paolo Mocarelli from the University of Milan-Bicocca.

"On substances like benzene for example, now it's too late", adds Nathalie Le Meur, pharmacist-biologist, one of the 1,300 members of Respire Rouen who says "revolt".

"If in 10 years we see cancer appear, as we have no starting point, it will be easier to say that there is no link" with Lubrizol, adds Joel Spiroux, working doctor " for more than 20 years "with Corinne Lepage.

For the time being only public officials intervening in the perimeter of the 500 m of the factory, have been offered blood samples. And liver or kidney abnormalities appeared. "These anomalies seem minor but affecting a large number of people, 100 to 200 (firefighters and police editors) .It really needs to be investigated," to know if there is a link with the disaster, says AFP Jean-François Gehanno professor at Rouen University Hospital. This doctor participated in the definition of the sampling protocol for firefighters "obviously not all" protected "and certainly not all the time". Other samples are planned.

- "holes in the racket" -

Why not extend this campaign to samples of the population that has been under the 22 km smoke plume? "The protocol is very, very heavy firefighters have been in the heart of the home, feet in oil," said the prefect of Normandy Pierre-André Durand at a press conference.

It is "premature to say", before the results of the current environmental study, if blood samples will be taken for the population, said Nathalie Viard of the Regional Health Agency.

To look for the dioxin in the blood, it is not too late, on the contrary, but "it is complicated and it is 375 euros the analysis", specifies Mr. Gehanno. But "the environmental analyzes that have been done are rather reassuring on the level of exposure of the population in general.For now it is mostly the first responders that concern me," he continues.

"The level of exposure is not the same as in Seveso where it is pounds of dioxin that have been emitted," the doctor adds.

Many, however, remain suspicious of the "reassuring" figures of the state when thousands of tons of chemicals have burned. Especially since many people have suffered from irritation of the throat, headaches, vomiting or diarrhea.

But according to Professor Gehanno, these symptoms say nothing about long-term risk.

"Carcinogenic products, there are always in fire fumes.There were, perhaps different," he says.

For Dr. Spiroux, we are far from having identified and sought all the toxic substances resulting from this disaster.

The air quality measurement association Atmo Normandie admitted that there had been "holes in the racket". "We did what we could, our equipment is made to measure chronic pollution", explained its director Véronique Delmas at a public meeting.

© 2019 AFP