Residents in the French city of \nRouen have been protesting against what they say is a cover up following\n a massive fire at a chemical storage facility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Huge clouds of \nblack smoke spewed into the air across north-western France as more than\n 5,000 tonnes of chemicals and oil burned at the site last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities say tests carried out after the blaze at the Lubrizol plant indicated that the smoke was not toxic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But environmental activists and unions accuse officials of “hiding the truth”. The storage facility at the Lubrizol factory housed tonnes of chemicals under an asbestos roof <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, several schools were closed after \nchildren said they felt nauseous and complained of sore throats and \neyes, local media reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, hundreds of people marched through Rouen carrying placards that read “our children are in danger”; “assurances for pupils” and “it’s up to us to investigate”. Hundreds of local residents took to the streets after schools were closed on Tuesday <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The march, organised by unions and activists, called\n on authorities to fully investigate the incident at the plant and to \nshare the findings relating to any possible impacts on public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plant belongs to Lubrizol, a US chemical manufacturer owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Rouen residents are demanding a full and transparent investigation into possible health impacts <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement days after the blaze, Lubrizol said \nthat CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts had suggested that the fire \nstarted outside the factory grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The origin of the fire external to Lubrizol and the fire unfortunately spread on to our site,” the company said, adding that it was fully co-operating with the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police have yet to confirm the cause of the fire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What are the dangers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On\n Thursday 26 September, a fire took hold of a chemical storage facility \nin Rouen, a port city on the river Seine – one of France’s biggest \nrivers – that has a population of more than 110,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The incident caused widespread panic and several surrounding towns advised residents to remain indoors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to local officials, the fire released mostly natural and organic substances such as hydrocarbons and mercaptan, a colourless additive to natural gas that has a pungent smell – a bit like rotten cabbages. Straw wrapped in plastic is covered with black residue in Saint Martin-du-Vivier, near Rouen <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the particles released into the air were \n“quickly deposited on the ground in the form of soot”, local authorities\n said, citing tests carried out to determine the presence of poisonous \nsubstances such as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and hydrogen \nsulphide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, other concerns were raised, such as the collapse of the factory roof, which contained asbestos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest information provided by the official website of the Seine-Maritime prefecture states that any risk of distribution of asbestos particles or fibres was “limited by the rapid collapse of the roof” (in French).<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the latest advice?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\n website goes on to advise residents that “the main risk is related to \nthe accidental ingestion of soot, especially by very young children,” \nand that toys and hands should be regularly cleaned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It adds that tap water is safe, but warns residents not to consume fruit and vegetables grown in the garden if they appear to be soiled by soot. A farmer in Saint Martin-du-Vivier shows how black dust has spread <\/p>\n\n\n\n The prefect of Normandy, Pierre-Andr\u00e9 Durand, said \nthat tests carried out shortly after the fire found no additional \nharmful toxins in the air and had shown that the water supply had not \nbeen contaminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a interview with France’s BFM news channel, \nMr Durand said he had no interest in “lying or hiding the facts”. “The \ngovernment’s line is transparency, transparency, transparency,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n France’s\n Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who said during an earlier visit to \nRouen that the lingering smell left by the fire was “annoying but not \nharmful”, promised on Tuesday to publish a full list of chemicals \nstocked at the Lubrizol plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The results of further tests into air quality and dust deposits are expected to be published in the coming days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An\n investigation is under way to determine whether the fire could have \nbeen prevented, whether the resulting pollution posed serious health \nrisks and whether anyone should be prosecuted over the incident. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Residents in the French city of Rouen have been protesting against what they say is a cover up following a massive fire at a chemical storage facility. Huge clouds of black smoke spewed into the air across north-western France as more than 5,000 tonnes of chemicals and oil burned at the site last week. Authorities say tests carried out after… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4064,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions\/4064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}