“I had symptoms – headaches, nausea – and I had them at work. And when I left my job I had these symptoms for a few more hours when I left the pool, then for several more days…” Claire* is a former employee of the municipal swimming pools of the City of Paris. Like other agents, who find it very difficult to talk, she fell ill after several years of working in a chlorinated and polluted atmosphere.
The worries started in 2016, just before the diagnosis came in: asthma. “I was put on sick leave and then later unable to exercise,” recalls Claire, who still has a lot on her heart. “I loved my job, it was not an easy choice to make. »
“An oxygen bottle in the back”
Claire is not the only one to suffer from these symptoms, which affect many city workers working in municipal swimming pools to varying degrees. Secretary of the CGT for the City, and himself a lifeguard, Voussad Challal said he met two of his former lifeguards, who were walking “with an oxygen bottle in the back”.
“In my swimming pool, a colleague died of lungs eight years ago, and another went into occupational illness due to respiratory problems, linked to chlorine. I have another colleague who has fallen to 60% of respiratory capacity, ”he tells us, starting to list one per year the lifeguards concerned. He estimates that they are about forty to have been removed from the pools or to have left for health difficulties linked to the pollution of the premises.
The City of Paris says it has been informed of the filing of files for recognition of occupational disease “for eight agents”, including one officially placed on sick leave due to occupational disease. “Four have carried out a professional retraining, two are still active around the pool and an agent is assigned outside a swimming pool”, details the town hall, which specifies that it is “not systematically notified of the recognition of incapacity for the agent “.
Air vents not cleaned
Like Voussad Challal, Claire is angry, and questions the management of her employer, the Paris City Hall. “The establishment in which I was, there were a lot of ventilation problems. There were air vents that had not been cleaned, and in recent years, the ventilation ducts were no longer found behind the air vents, due to multiple works. We, in the middle of all that, we didn’t necessarily have all the information. Chloramines and other chemical products, we breathed them in constantly and the service of the Paris City Hall did not intervene quickly enough. We weren’t heard enough at that level,” she said, a feeling of revolt in her voice.
“It’s not just Paris, in France in general, we don’t take enough into consideration the toxicity of these products. I don’t understand why it doesn’t move more, ”she adds.
In fact, the management of the Paris City Hall on this subject is not quite in the nails, according to documents that 20 minutes was able to consult. While the city has the obligation, according to a decree of October 8, 1987, to control the ventilation and sanitation facilities of the work premises, it would seem that no control was carried out before the year 2021, date on which the CGT asked the municipality to communicate the regulatory files.
An email from the sports department of December 2021 that we obtained, thus affirms that a “transversal market for the control of ventilation systems […] was put in place and made it possible to carry out the first checks during the first half of 2021. ” The checks before 2021 “were carried out by management”, replies the Paris City Hall. But the city is unable to provide the slightest proof, despite multiple reminders of 20 minutes for more than a month, and while the town hall has the obligation to record the dates and results of these periodic checks in a maintenance file.
Nearly a thousand anomalies
Above all, the results of the checks carried out in 2021 were considered worrying by the CGT. “The management of water and air quality is contrary to the regulations on many points”, indicates a report by the union, which has examined 33 expert reports, that 20 minutes was able to consult. “Of the 1,764 control points carried out in these documents, 954 present a severe anomaly”, summarizes the CGT, which denounces “obsolete” water filtration systems, ventilation systems outside of any control, or ventilations “in a state of disrepair”.
While the regulations require a fresh air rate of at least 60% (this is the air that is taken from the outside and injected inside, the rest being recycled air and therefore already heated ), several swimming pools had rates far below at the time of the checks, i.e. 9% in Dauvin (18th), 31% in Cour des Lions (11th) and 42% in Rouvet (19th). “Below this threshold there is a risk of intoxication. The body no longer receives enough oxygen, this can lead to headaches, vomiting. People don’t realize it, they tell themselves they have a headache because they’ve had a hard day,” explains Voussad Challal.
Reinforced action plan
Faced with these results, the City of Paris began to take measures. Thirty million euros over 5 years were voted in 2021 to bring all the facilities of the City of Paris up to standard (schools, nurseries, sports establishments, etc.) “i.e. double the previous term”, specifies the town hall. “All of the City’s 30 swimming pools have been the subject of a reinforced action plan with a view to bringing them into full compliance with existing regulations”, continues the town hall, which specifies that “for 13 d ‘between them, compliance has been completed’, ‘for 14 compliance is in progress or planned’ and ‘three sites are the subject of additional studies’.
“There is a beginning of taking into account, recognizes Voussad Challal, but at the moment T the oldest swimming pools are in ruins. The Grange-aux-Belles swimming pool [10e] is rotten, the ceilings are collapsing. For the trade unionist, the problem is more general: “We let the public service die, we under-fund it, to say that then it doesn’t work and we drop it. For example, in the department responsible for ventilation, the workforce has been divided by ten in twenty years. However, a well-done public service works. »