The polluted air of the Paris metro is a real concern as heat waves multiply.
The good polluted air of Paris is far from being the best and we know it but it is 8 to 10 times worse in the Paris metro. Comparable to a permanent pollution peak, the polluted air of the metros is of concern to the RESPIRE association, which fights for better air quality, particularly in transport. This pollution with fine particles (PM10, PM2.5 and PM1) only lasts 2 hours for daily users but for employees, exposure is daily.
With two studies carried out in 2019 and 2021, the RESPIRE association denounced pollution levels 10 times higher in the metro than on the surface. This Thursday, June 16, a new report is published: the pollution would be twice as high in the metros of course, but also near the railway air vents.
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Questioned this Thursday, by Paris Match, Tony Renucci, director of the association RESPIRE, condemns “the too high and alarming levels of pollution near the air vents of the RATP.” Between October 2021 and May 2022, the RESPIRE association measured air pollution above 18 different air vents, at different times and on different types of metro (on rails or on tires). These seven months of study allowed them to affirm that the concentration of particles in suspension in the air would generally be twice as high near the air vents. The overruns could even sometimes reach up to ten times the usual values for the outside air for the least well ventilated stations.
Only five stations equipped with sensors
The sources of this pollution remain the same as for the two previous studies: “the wear of materials due to the braking of the trains, the contact between the rolling stock and the railway but also the resuspension of dust due to traffic oars.” However, it is not yet possible to draw verified conclusions on the health impact of this pollution for users or employees.
It proposes three immediate actions. “The first thing to do would be to improve the monitoring of this excessive pollution thanks to more sensors measuring the quality of the air”. Indeed, the RATP has only five stations equipped with sensors on a network of more than three hundred stations: “it is insufficient compared to the density of the network.” Tony Renucci adds “that we should invest in our trains and in our trains by investing in new innovations. In particular, the braking system should be improved, it is the very source of particulate emissions. Finally, his last recommendation which would make it possible to reduce the nuisances and the risks related to this pollution would be “to evacuate the polluted air as well as to install air purifiers which will retain the particles. It is out of the question to evacuate the polluted air to spit it out.
With nearly 100,000 deaths recorded due to pollution in 2021, the fight against air pollution is a public health necessity.