“it’s anger that wakes me up at night”, confides a pregnant victim
In Toulouse, the site of a former battery reprocessing plant is being cleaned up, local residents denounce a health scandal of lead poisoning.
The pink city is brooding. Toulouse is at the heart of a health scandal massive lead contamination. Has the battery recycling company STMC, located in the industrial area of Fondeyre, been poisoning thousands of inhabitants in silence for almost 70 years?
As part of the dismantling of society, soil analyzes have shown lead content above the acceptable threshold determined by the High Council for Public Health (HCSP).
“The site operated a lead smelter between 1952 and 2011, then the only battery reception and crushing facilities until 2020”specifies the prefecture.
12,000 inhabitants would now be in the contaminated area. The sector notably includes six schools and three crèches.
On October 6, 2022, the prefecture specified: “the data communicated to the State services at the beginning of 2022 characterize a lead distance of up to 700 meters depending on the prevailing winds around the site, the concentrations being able to exceed 300 mg of lead per kg of soil.”
A massive blow for the residents. All are then invited to be tested quickly. This is the case of Elisabeth, 36, pregnant.
I fell from the clouds, I did not expect it. At first, I was like an ostrich, and then it was anger that woke me up in the middle of the night. I blame this polluting company.
Elisabeth, victim of contamination
Each household, with a blood lead result above the intervention threshold set by the HCSP (50 g of lead per liter of blood), is offered a home visit in order to characterize its local exposure to lead, and to adapt the measures to prevent exposure to the context of his home. Elisabeth will have to have a personalized follow-up with her pregnancy. Appraisals will be granted in her garden where she has planted a vegetable patch.
“There is no filter for the baby, everything that goes through the mother’s blood goes to the child”she recalls.
Lead contamination can cause various health problems. The substance nests in the organs : kidneys, heart, brain … And can lead to malfunctions. Medicines stored to eliminate residues in the body. Each patient is to be treated on a case-by-case basis. Pediatrician Jacques Claverie explains:
For children, you have to be even more vigilant. Contamination is mainly oral, it is much rarer via particles in the air. Symptoms such as colic appearing can alert.
Following a public meeting on December 15, the president of the neighborhood committee, Serge Bagui, concerned by lead contamination underlines: “We want to be better informed, it’s a real public health problem. We need training to understand. We have contradictory elements. How are the curves made? The limitations?”
Questions still pending for local residents, and a hefty bill for the company. For the moment, the figures put forward for the depollution of the site exceed the two million euros.