While the peak in pollution is expected to last a few more days in six regions, doctors are concerned. The waiting rooms are always full.
Unprecedented in its duration and intensity, the episode of fine particle air pollution is set to continue in the coming days, announces the Ministry of Health this Thursday. Marisol Touraine therefore calls for vigilance and recalls the recommendations to protect his health.
Advice that was undoubtedly useful, but which was not enough to protect everyone. According to doctors, the first victims of pollution are pouring in en masse. In the medical offices of city practitioners to begin with, as confirmed by Why actor Dr Marcel Garrigou-Grandchamp, general practitioner in Lyon (3rd arrondissement). “We can clearly see the pollution. It is visible through the window with the fog, but especially in our waiting rooms. In terms of pathologies, we see all the infants with recrudescences of bronchiolitis, children with asthma, and adults with attacks of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) ”.
Dr Marcel Garrigou-Grandchamp, general practitioner in Lyon: ” Fine diesel particles are there all year round. And their harmful effects have been seen for years… “
Worried hospital workers
Same story with Professor Bruno Housset, head of the pneumology department, at Créteil hospital (Val-de-Marne): “For a few days, many general practitioners have told me that they have seen increasing requests for emergency consultations for pollution-related pathologies. I have the same feedback in certain hospital emergencies, ”he adds.
And on this last point, Dr Christophe Prudhomme confirms. Emergency physician at the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), he describes the following situation: “Patients with pulmonary diseases suffer during these pollution peaks. They consult more frequently and sometimes require hospitalization ”. He describes the period of activity in emergencies and SAMU as “dense with the impression among caregivers of an increase in hospitalizations of these fragile populations”. “We have, for sure, more compared to what happens in other years. We will be able to quantify this increase when we do the first assessments, ”he predicts.
Pediatric emergencies under pressure
And these reports are likely to be cold in the back. Teams from the Public Assistance – Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP) have been carrying out work for several years to better understand the health consequences of pollution. The first results published this Thursday have notably made it possible to model the relationship between the quantity of ultrafine particles, PM2.5, in the air and the number of visits of children for asthma to pediatric emergencies. They show a potential 50% increase in asthma diagnoses between 0 and 25 micrograms / m3 of ultrafine PM2.5 particles in the air, with a plateau effect beyond that.
The team also assessed whether the number of consultations for childhood asthma had increased at AP-HP over the past 7 days, compared to the same period over the past five years. Conclusion, it observes with caution, a moderate increase in pediatric respiratory pathologies. Between November 30 and December 7, 2016, 2,045 small patients consulted, against 1,516 for the same period, in 2015. Professor Bruno Housset, him, projects even further. And his forecasts are worrying. “This pollution peak will be the cause of significant morbidity. With an increase in the number of deaths. There is no doubt, ”he concludes.
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