Air quality in the Paris metro: investigation targeting RATP closed

The Paris prosecutor's office has closed its investigation into the RATP for "endangering others," which it opened in 2023 following a complaint from the Respire association, it told AFP on September 16, confirming a report from Ouest-France. Respire suspected the Paris transport authority of concealing an abnormally high level of fine particles from its users. Following investigations carried out by the Central Office for Combating Environmental and Public Health Attacks (OCLAESP), the court ruled that "no sufficiently characterized offense has emerged“.

In April 2023, the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation into "endangering others" against the RATP, which Respire accused of lacking transparency regarding the levels of fine particle pollution observed in the metro and RER networks in Île-de-France. The association filed a complaint against the RATP in March 2021 for aggravated deception and unintentional injury to users. Two months later, a similar complaint was filed on behalf of several users.

“ Regarding the questioning of possible unintentional injuries, the investigation did not establish that users or workers had suffered from any pathology likely to be linked to fine particles.", explained the Paris prosecutor's office on Tuesday. The prosecutor's office also did not uphold the accusation of " deception", since the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) " cannot offer firm conclusions on possible health effects of users' exposure to underground air pollution » and that « RATP communicates the measurements taken in stations equipped with a control device on a website updated in real time“.

The court also considers that "there is no obvious cover-up of this pollution by the RATP " and did not raise any " failure to comply with the obligations of prudence and safety guaranteeing that workers are not endangered“.

Read alsoPollution in the metro and RER: 13 stations exceed recommended thresholds

High pollution levels in several stations

Fine particle pollution can cause respiratory discomfort or infections and lead to an increase in hospitalizations or mortality linked to these pathologies.

A detailed map of pollution in the Paris metro and RER, carried out at the initiative of the transport authority Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), with the support of Airparif, was published in early 2024, revealing high pollution levels in at least three stations.