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Notre Dame

By Deepika Shanmuga Sundaram

Danger doesn’t just lurk in loaded guns and radicalised men. 

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When the Notre Dame, entailing within its walls and architecture centuries of historical significance, began burning down to ashes, the city wept. Donations poured in. Reconstruction efforts started on a whim, and the nation was on its way to patch up the sanctuary within 5 years. 

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Sadly, the collapse of a city’s monumental building was not the only destruction to be dealt with. There was also the potential collapse of many lungs. Surfaces of pavement and gardens in proximity of the cathedral had lead levels 32-65 times the recommended limit. French Environmental Campaign group: Robin des Bois, Robin Hood Association found that the day after the fire, “the cathedral's spire contained 250 tons of lead and the framework contained 210 tons of it. Leaves of lead fell and transformed into dust.” Immediately after the fire, amongst terrace cafes and book stalls on the left bank that resumed their day-to-day activities, the public was warned to regularly clean their homes, and wash their hands. One might wonder if similar advice was disseminated before the Black Plague.  

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Yet, Mr. Bonnemains of Robin Hood, revealed that a warning about elevated lead levels in the vicinity of Notre-Dame was issued only on April 27, nearly two weeks after the fire. One might view a two-week late warning about elevated lead levels as a minor error in judgement. The French authorities did not seem to think so, when the proclaimed that the air as “not toxic”. 

Truth is lead poisoning symptoms do not show up immediately; it is a slow build up in the body over months that impedes physical and neurological development. Children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to its effects. Particles released into the 

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atmosphere during the fire often are absorbed and they manifest in the water, buildings, and soil - persisting for years. Health tests conducted by French authorities to prove that there is “no health impact that can be attributed to the pollution caused by the fire...” are most certainly inconclusive considering the long-term effects of lead contamination. The delayed notice to Parisians prevented them from taking precautions to protect themselves against the presence of lead particles in the air, potentially leading to serious health problems. “Nothing has been fixed” says Ms. Thebaud-Mony, adding that there needs to regular notice and an updated map of lead levels around Notre Dam. 

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The tendency to push back environmental concerns amongst other “more urgent” social and political causes is not exclusive to the French authorities who played down the risks of lead contamination. In reality, there exists a disparaging hierarchy of concerns and environmental imperatives are often times delegitimize when they do not bring forth immediate (economic) incentives.

Furthermore, Delusions of invincibility as most things in life, gains strength in numbers. And it is no surprise that citizens of first world nations - including ourselves- harbour such feelings when they saw Notre Dame in the lens of architectural catastrophe more so than an environmental one. Considering how there’s still an iPhone release, military spending, and the ever faithful memes to bless our feed, how can there possibly be lead poisoning thousands of French citizens as we speak? 

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It’s not untrue to state that for most first-world citizens, hearing hypothetical news of lead poisoning in Syria carries more sympathy/gravity than one close to home. And when outcry (inevitably) occurs, it appears to be more out of principle than anything else.

While the burning down of centuries old culture is an issue worthy of being addressed by the modern-day intellectual -- a superior class of being at the peak of Maslow’s pyramid -- lead poisoning is not so. Certainly such ‘third-world problems’ have no place in our fine, uncorrupted societies and fine, uncorrupted governments.

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Tragedies always carry side effects and they most certainly cannot be patched up with a couple metaphorical plasters.

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