The customers who gathered there on a recent evening, before the coronavirus shut down social life, had just come from the refineries, factories and docks of the industrial zone. The idea was that it gave us work.”The citizens have taken on not just the government, but also, in a first, an entire industrial basin: all of the Marseille area’s heavy industry, which together pumps out one-fifth of France’s fine particles and a quarter of its heavy metals emissions.Nearly 20 percent of France’s factories classified as high risk by the European Union are clustered in Fos-sur-Mer, built alongside a giant inland lagoon.The citizens are calling into question a decades-old state industrial strategy that looked to pack as much heavy industry as possible into a confined area without questioning the human costs.Now the state, typically seen in France as the ultimate protector, is being blamed for failing to shield residents from the pollution, and is accused of going easy on the companies for decades, and damaging the health of the whole region along the way.For example, in May 2010, the prefect, the highest-ranking local representative of France’s central government, noted “numerous uncontrolled atmospheric emissions” at an ArcelorMittal steel plant in the area, according to the criminal complaint.“The prefect evidently failed to issue any warnings,” the criminal complaint says.ArcelorMittal did not respond to a request for comment.In terms of harm, the study “showed no difference between the workers and the population as a whole, and that really surprised us,” said Barbara Allen, an American sociologist who helped lead the study.The complaint of criminal endangerment was filed 16 months ago and now includes 260 residents, seven citizens groups and several unions. Fos. “But then, you’ve got to think about the work.

» L'association écologiste Robin des Bois ne cache pas sa vive inquiétude après la découverte d'une nappe acide polluante de quelques hectares en Méditerranée au niveau de l'anse d'Auguette près de Martigues (Bouches-du-Rhône). Santé et pollution, la CGT d'Arcelor organise une réunion ce soir ... Intempéries : le vent se déchaîne sur la plage du Cavaou à Fos. “But we need to be healthy to work.”That conundrum is not far beneath the surface among the after-work crowd at the no-frills Bar du Commerce in the center of Fos. “They made the people rich. But when the health costs became impossible to ignore, they went to court, a groundbreaking move in France.FOS-SUR-MER, France — The line of giant chimneys ceaselessly belching smoke in the air stretches to the horizon in one of the most polluted industrial zones in Europe.For years, the inhabitants of Fos-sur-Mer, France, accepted their illnesses — for example, a cancer rate that is double the national average — in exchange for jobs in the nearly 200 factories, warehouses, gas terminals and industrial sheds that surround them.Doctors’ waiting rooms were often full. Ce produit chimique hautement corrosif, utilisé notamment pour le traitement des eaux usées, s'est ensuite transformé en solution acide marron au contact de la mer, formant une nappe toxique d'environ six hectares dans la Grande Bleue. An orange-brown sheet of several hectares spread this Thursday morning in the Mediterranean Sea, off Martigues, where the Lavéra petrochemical complex is located. Mercredi 05 août 2020 17:04 France nature environnement porte plainte contre Kem One La baignade avait été interdite sur la plage des Laurons, à Martigues fin juillet, à la suite de la pollution.© Sébastien Nogier/EPA GRrdanlkulululeRN Il y a 4 jours Le 23/07/2020 à 18:54 Signaler un abus. “It was a bit of a taboo. But it could be so much better, they’re sure, if the courts forced the plants to adopt the most modern pollution-reducing methods.“We need the jobs,” said Ms. Anane, who has numerous ailments. Ferric chloride, a highly corrosive product, spilled into the sea after a leak. 05/11/2019 à 15h57; Fumée noire au-dessus d'Esso Fos. If there’s no pollution, there’s no work. “For me, this is my whole life, my passion,” he said.More people started joining the cause as the toll on the area’s health became harder to ignore, even as French officials defended their balancing of industrial policy with local air quality.“It took years for people to become conscious” of the health consequences, said Mr. Moutet, but once they did, the fear and anger he had long felt became more widespread.“They trusted these companies,” said Ms. Andreu, the lawyer. « Le chlorure de fer est très corrosif et est donc un danger pour les baigneurs, les poissons, les coquillages et les mammifères marins. Une autre est délimitée au Cavaou. 13/11/2019 à 15h51; Fos-sur-Mer invitent les habitants à installer un refuge LPO .