April 24, 2019
If the alert to fine particle air pollution, caused in particular by the good weather and the rise in temperatures of the last few days, was lifted on April 23, the air quality in France remains worrying. Here are the top 10 most polluted cities in France in 2018.
Air pollution with fine particles causing serious infections
Fine particles, suspended in the ambient air, with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns, have the particularity of infiltrate deep into the lungs, into the alveoli. When they are very concentrated, especially during peak pollution, they are the cause of respiratory infections that can be serious. They would have been responsible in 2017 for 48,000 deaths in France, according to the latest official figures from the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition, reported by our colleagues from BFMTV.
At the origin of these fine particles, emissions linked to exhaust gases but also heating by combustion in particular or industrial emissions, which explode when certain climatic conditions are met, as, for example, during the days of sun and heat of these last days. If the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition sets the annual average threshold for fine particles at 40 micrograms per cubic meter (μg / m3), the European Union sets it at 20 μg / m3 and l WHO, at 10 μg / m3.
Saint-Denis, Saint-Mandé and Paris are the French cities with the most polluted air
It must be said that if the air quality has improved since 2000, France still exceeds regulatory air quality standards for at least one pollutant : she would have ” received several warnings from the European Commission for non-compliance with regulatory air quality standards for the protection of human health ”Can be read in the report of the General Commission for Sustainable Development.
An AirVisual report, also reported by BFMTV journalists, ranks the cities with the most polluted air, by continent and by country. According to their classification, Saint-Denis, Saint-Mandé and Paris lead the French cities whose air is the most polluted by fine particles, with respectively 17.6 μg / m3, 16.2 μg / m3 and 15.6 μg / m3. Then follow Valencienes, Douai, Roubaix, then Salaise-sur-Sanne, Srasbourg, Lille and finally Saint-Quentin.
Aurélie Giraud
Read also : Indoor pollution: what are the consequences for health?
