The Senate committee of inquiry into the spectacular Lubrizol fire in Rouen denounces “unacceptable blind spots” in the policy for the prevention of industrial risks in France, and pinpoints the ex-Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn in a report published Thursday.
“Late and incomplete” reaction
“Like health monitoring proper, the identification of the health risk as practiced by the Ministry of Health was both late and incomplete”, write the rapporteurs Christine Bonfanti-Dossat (LR) and Nicole Bonnefoy (PS) in their conclusions on this “major industrial accident”, with no “apparent” victim, which was the subject of “200,000 tweets in 24 hours”.
The fire, which occurred on September 26 on the Seveso high threshold site, had caused a huge cloud of black smoke, 22 km long with fallout of soot into Hauts-de-France. Nearly 9,505 tonnes of chemicals had burned in this automotive lubricants plant and on the neighboring Normandy Logistics site.
Unusable environmental monitoring
For the commission chaired by the centrist Hervé Maurey, the methodology adopted by the Ministry of Health for health monitoring is “problematic”.
Indeed, “the public decision to launch health monitoring remains suspended without the undeniable discovery of a proven risk”, say the senators, despite “the uncertainty about the toxicity of the fumes emitted during the fire”. However, “it appears (…) that it is impossible to give a definitive opinion on the health impact of the Lubrizol fire, in view of the only data collected as part of environmental monitoring, the latter being totally or partially unusable “, continue the senators.
“As summarized by Ms. Émilie Counil, researcher at the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED)” Public Health France, the ARS and Ms. Buzyn defend the view that we should know what we are looking for to search, “write the senators.
Risk of exposure to benzene
Even “in the short term, despite a generally reassuring assessment, there remains a risk of exposure to benzene for the populations located on the site of the Lubrizol factory on the day and the day after the fire, as well as significant uncertainty regarding dioxins. and furans “. The report points to a “longer-term problem: the debates around asbestos fibers in the plume”.
The Minister for the Ecological Transition is also criticized. Its stated goal following the disaster “to increase controls by 50% by 2022 with constant staff” is “unrealistic,” the report said. The senators also denounce the “premature” decision of the Minister of Agriculture “taken urgently on October 11” to lift the ban on the sale of milk produced in more than 200 municipalities.
Insufficient risk prevention
The government is not the only one pinned in this report. “The industrial risk prevention policy deployed for 40 years in France reveals significant and unacceptable blind spots”, write the rapporteurs. “The budgetary appropriations allocated by the State to the prevention of technological risks have been decreasing for several years,” added the senators. The number of inspections has practically been halved over the past fifteen years.
Elected officials of the High Assembly also point out “the reduced number of sanctions imposed” against polluters. And they consider it “urgent to review the doctrine of state crisis communication” consisting of “wanting to reassure at all costs”.
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