The RATP network (illustration). – Miguel Medina afp.com
- Excessive mortality among RATP agents was noted in a document dated March 2013 from the occupational health service of the authority. This study covers the period 1980-1999.
- For the SAT-RATP, “the RATP refuses to make the link between pollution and deaths, but it does not provide any element which proves the contrary”. The union adds that other studies were not communicated to them.
- On the side of the RATP, it is stressed that the study stops in 1999 and it is explained that in the last study ordered “excess mortality no longer appears”. This should be presented to the representative trade unions “in the coming weeks”.
The pollution of the Paris metro worries its agents. The Autonomous Union Tout RATP (SAT-RATP), which defends the employees of the RATP, has decided to file a complaint against the Ile-de-France transport organization for “deliberate endangering of others”, according to the text of the complaint that 20 minutes was able to consult.
“Despite the obligations incumbent on it as an employer, RATP refuses to inform its employees and continues to expose them to considerable health risks of which it is fully aware. This is why the SAT-RATP has decided to file a complaint, ”the union wrote in a press release.
Excess mortality
The union relies on a RATP Occupational Health Service document dated March 2013 which notes excess mortality among staff compared to the averages in Ile-de-France. The study is carried out by the National Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS) over the period 1980-1999. The agents who worked during this period mostly died from cancer (44% of deaths in men, 42% in women), mainly from bronchopulmonary cancer (27% of deaths from tumors).
Above all, there is a high excess mortality from cancers in handling and transport agents compared to the population of Ile-de-France, particularly for cancers of the esophagus, intestine, larynx and other parts. respiratory system (respectively + 124%, + 123%, + 153%, + 108%). Station agents also have an overall excess mortality of 30% compared to the population of Ile-de-France, as well as compared to their RATP colleagues who are in offices or protected by train cabins. Ditto among track workers (+ 38% excess mortality) and maintenance workers (+ 51%).
Excess mortality still current?
But this study stops in 1999, and indicates that it is not possible “to make the link between current working conditions and health”. “Working conditions have evolved since that time,” notes the document, which nevertheless recommends “the establishment of a traceability of exposures” and an “in-depth” study.
A study was indeed carried out from 2000 to 2012, and completed in 2018, but the RATP “refuses to communicate all the elements”, denounces Réda Benrerbia, secretary general of the SAT-RATP. “The RATP refuses to make the link between pollution and deaths, but it provides no evidence to the contrary. After 2012, there are other studies that were not communicated to us either. We ended up do our own study with the association Respire dans le métro, which showed higher pollution levels than those recorded by the RATP, but they swept away the results, ”adds the unionist.
New results will be made public
The Ile-de-France transport company replied in a press release, “formally denying these allegations”, and qualifying the SAT-RATP as a “non-representative” union (the union did not obtain 10% of the votes in the first round of professional elections) . The RATP explains why it has not seen fit to communicate these results until now: “The phase to understand the results lasted a year, then there were the strikes and at the beginning of 2020 the health crisis”, explains Grégory Carillo. , head of the RATP occupational health prevention unit.
Moreover, according to Grégory Carillo, the excess mortality attached to certain categories in the study carried out between 1980 and 1999 can be explained by the “lifestyles” of the time and by a reclassification policy affecting the most vulnerable people in occupations. which were sedentary at the time, like the profession of station agent, which has completely evolved today and is no longer targeted by redeployment policies. Finally the last study, where according to Grégory Carillo “excess mortality no longer appears”, should be the subject of a presentation to representative trade unions “in the coming weeks”.