How growing up in ‘Chemical Valley’ inspired lawyer to sue industry she used to work for

Hélène Duguy: ‘Here I feel very close to people who I was raised with, so this makes the issue very relatable, very tangible.’ Photograph: Alexandre Bagdassarian/The Guardian

The factories were just part of the landscape for Hélène Duguy growing up in the heart of an area known as France’s “Chemical Valley”.

“Those factories are visible from my mother’s apartment,” says Duguy, 34, whose mother still lives in St-Genis-Laval, south of Lyon.