Angelique Chrisafis: France loses landmark court case over air pollution
The French state has
failed to do enough to limit air pollution around Paris, according to a
landmark court ruling delivered after a woman and daughter with respiratory
problems sued the nation. In the first case of
its kind, Farida, 52, and her 16-year-old daughter, whose full names were not
released by the court, sued the French state over the impact of living near
Paris’s traffic-choked ringroad in Saint-Ouen.
She had told an
association fighting for clean air: “For years I had respiratory infections.”
What began as nasal and throat infections got gradually worse. “I repeatedly
had bronchitis. Doctors gave me antibiotics but it wasn’t helping,” she said. “Three years ago I was
sent to a lung specialist who said my problems were linked to air pollution. He
advised me to move. My daughter had had bronchitis as a baby then asthma while
growing up.” The woman and her daughter eventually moved to Orléans and the
symptoms cleared up.
The case, before the
administrative court in Montreuil outside Paris, was the first brought by
individuals against the French state over health problems caused by air
pollution. It was backed by several environmental groups. The court said in its
written verdict: “The state committed a fault by taking insufficient measures
concerning the quality of air.” It said that between 2012 and 2016 the state
failed to take measures needed to reduce concentrations of certain polluting
gases exceeding the limits... read more:
