Pollution 3rd cause of death in France

Most Parisians can tell tourists on a smoggy day that the €9 they are asked to pay to view the city from the Sacre Coeur is money thrown away. The haze that settles over the city on such days makes it impossible to see anything beyond Montmartre, the popular hill where the church is located. But this is perhaps the least harmful consequence of the pollution affecting the capital. In the last 50 years it has been the same and the city’s authorities are on constant alert. For Clothilde Nonnez, however, that is not enough.

Nonnez is a former professional dancer who settled in Paris in 1987. It took only two years to develop a case of severe asthma, which she blames on the air pollution in the capital. At 29 she developed asthma, chronic bronchitis, needed operations for sinusitis and attacks of pneumonia. Now, at the age of 57, she has had enough. In Erin Brockovich-style (the US activist who took on US utility companies and won) she wants the state to pay. She is suing the Republic for €140,000 for failing to respect the regulations of air quality in France. “My client’s life is conditioned by her health problems and her visits to the emergency wards when pollution is at its peak, and is under permanent treatment,” said Nonnez’s lawyer. Added to this, she is in constant fear of developing cancer.

The French health authorities published a study last year which detailed mortality from air pollution. Up to 48,000 people die each year in France for this reason, making it the 3rd causative agent of death after tobacco and alcohol. As well, on average, in cities of over 100,000 inhabitants, pollution reduces life expectancy by 15 months.

Nonnez is not alone, her cause had attracted some 30 more to come forward and file law suits against the state.