Pressings: towards the ban on perchloroethylene?
If this woman's case is emblematic, residents of dry cleaners exposed to lethal gas would face very significant risks. According to André Cicolella of the Health-Environment Network, WHO standards are 250 g/m3, and these people "are on average exposed to 2000g/m3"..
Thierry Drouin, is one of them. This Rennes restaurateur, whose business is next to a dry cleaner, suffers from cardiac arrhythmias, pain in his limbs and neck and sometimes tremors. After an air analysis and forensic examination - at his own expense - it turned out that there was perchloroethylene in his establishment. He wanted to take action and in 2010 created a victims' association, ADVEPP. But he said that the members of associations had a hard time making themselves heard by the authorities.
Actions of the authorities deemed insufficient
The government is not inactive in dealing with this problem, but does not go far enough, according to the associations.
In 2008, the ministry decided to impose higher safety standards on dry cleaners and to intensify controls to minimize perchloroethylene releases to the atmosphere: monitoring facilities every five years, implantation of the machines in a confined workshop, continuous ventilation required with possibly active charcoal filter...
At the Ministry of Ecology, it is assured that today "more than two-thirds of the dry cleaners are compliant" and it is said that they want to "go further, in a graduated way". For example, a new decree is expected to be issued by the end of 2012 to prohibit the establishment of new facilities using perchloroethylene near homes. For existing facilities, the authorities plan to move forward to 2018 to replace the older facilities, using a financial assistance mechanism.
But the patient associations want more, and faster. For François Veillerette of Future Generations, the time is no longer for more controls, but for a total ban on the product. If no action is taken, the association is considering action for "state failure".
Thierry Drouin, is one of them. This Rennes restaurateur, whose business is next to a dry cleaner, suffers from cardiac arrhythmias, pain in his limbs and neck and sometimes tremors. After an air analysis and forensic examination - at his own expense - it turned out that there was perchloroethylene in his establishment. He wanted to take action and in 2010 created a victims' association, ADVEPP. But he said that the members of associations had a hard time making themselves heard by the authorities.
Actions of the authorities deemed insufficient
The government is not inactive in dealing with this problem, but does not go far enough, according to the associations.
In 2008, the ministry decided to impose higher safety standards on dry cleaners and to intensify controls to minimize perchloroethylene releases to the atmosphere: monitoring facilities every five years, implantation of the machines in a confined workshop, continuous ventilation required with possibly active charcoal filter...
At the Ministry of Ecology, it is assured that today "more than two-thirds of the dry cleaners are compliant" and it is said that they want to "go further, in a graduated way". For example, a new decree is expected to be issued by the end of 2012 to prohibit the establishment of new facilities using perchloroethylene near homes. For existing facilities, the authorities plan to move forward to 2018 to replace the older facilities, using a financial assistance mechanism.
But the patient associations want more, and faster. For François Veillerette of Future Generations, the time is no longer for more controls, but for a total ban on the product. If no action is taken, the association is considering action for "state failure".