Prosecutors in Paris have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that pollution in the capital's metro system has been deliberately under-reported and is putting travellers' lives at risk.
The French capital's metro operator RATP is being investigated for fraud and causing involuntary injuries following claims that it deliberately under-reports pollution levels and fails to inform passengers about the dangers.
"It's time to lift the veil of silence and that the RATP tells the truth to users," the head of the Respire (Breathe) campaign group, Tony Renucci, said in a statement to announce the opening of a criminal probe, which has been confirmed by the Paris prosecutor's office.
The organisation, which lobbies for clean air, filed a legal complaint in 2021 after carrying out two separate monitoring investigations.
It accuses the RATP of being aware of the pollution problems for the last two decades, and "deliberately refuses to warn passengers of the risks they face".
The RATP refuses to answer questions, saying it will not comment on a case which is now before the judiciary. But the transport company insists that it has been working for "more than 20 years" to improve air quality in its network.
Fine particle pollution can lead to respiratory infections and other breathing difficulties.
In June last year, French public health watchdog Anses concluded that levels of toxic fine particulate matter were on average three times higher inside the metro than outside.
Earlier this year, the Paris prosecutor's office ordered the Central Office for public health and environmental degradation (OCLAESP) to open a preliminary enquiry to see if the Paris transportation company was responsible for fraud leading to an increased public health risk.
Air quality checked in five stations
Of particular concern are particles generated from braking. Air quality is monitored in only three stations across the 309-stop network, Anses said. The RATP say they have, in fact, five monitoring stations at strategic positions in the network, and that the information from those monitors is updated in real time and is freely available on the company's website
The RATP says that air quality is a "priority" and it has an "ambitious action plan" to tackle pollution, which includes installing high-performance fans and electric braking systems to reduce pollution.
The transporter is also experimenting with a system to capture the particle released during braking, so that the pollutants do not become suspended in the air breathed by passengers.
The RATP is betrayed by its own monitors. At Chatelêt station in central Paris, for example, the concentration of PM10 (particles less than 10 micrometres in diameter) varies between 100 and 300 parts per million in every cubic metre of air. The World Health Organisation recommends a limit of 50 parts per million as a daily average.
An estimated 40,000 premature deaths occur in France each year due to all forms of air pollution, according to public health figures.
