Pollution at the Bagnolet interchange: associations call for "immediate measures"

Verdragon, an environmental association from Bagnolet co-founded by Alternatiba and the Front des mères (collective of working-class neighborhoods represented by political scientist Fatima Ouassak), called for "immediate measures" against "social and ecological injustice" under the ramp of the monumental interchange between the A3 and the Paris ring road which overlooks the international bus station and the metro. 36.000 travelers pass through it every day.

The projects of the elected officials "do not respond to the urgency of the situation", estimated Margaux, representative of Alternatiba Paris in front of the thick black smoke released by smoke bombs. "We can't wait until 2035. The people here can't take it anymore," said Verdragon spokesman Gabriel Mazzolini. Activists warn against the effectiveness of the authorities' large-scale projects, which are slow to materialize because "at the last minute there is no money" to carry them out.

Activists promote short-term actions (speed limit to 30 km/h, traffic diversions, establishment of green spaces) against "the impact on the physical and mental health of Bagnolet residents" that daily traffic has on the interchange of 300.000 vehicles: asthma, respiratory diseases, cancers.

"Elected, be finer than the particles", could we read on one of the posters carried by the activists, the day Airparif published the results of a measurement campaign which confirms that road traffic is the main source of ultrafine particle pollution in Ile-de-France, pollutants that are still poorly known and unregulated.

A group of Île-de-France municipalities, including Montreuil and Bagnolet where the interchange is located, Est Ensemble, was appointed project manager in the fall of 2019 to define a transformation project for the 200 ha marked by the concreting that extend in the shadow of the Mercurial towers and where 35.000 inhabitants live. Decisions must be made before the summer.