The alternating traffic could be introduced as early as 2014 when ... - Le Figaro

Minister of Ecology offers this solution to fight against pollution peaks microparticles and nitrogen oxides.

succession pollution peaks around France in recent days have forced the government to act. The Department of Ecology has announced Wednesday that he would establish in 2014 the possibility of setting up an alternating traffic during these peak fine particle pollution and nitrogen oxides (NOx). At the moment, this is only possible in the case of exceedances of ozone.

In January, “a roundtable discussion with local authorities and transport authorities will be established to study the modalities of implementation of this measure,” said Philippe Martin, the Minister of ecology, following an interdepartmental committee of the air quality (ICAI).

This would

from vehicle registration plates: even numbers circulate even days, others would be allowed on odd days. A topic that will necessarily lead to heated discussions. We know that especially the more affluent families could circumvent the problem with two vehicles.

“This type of measurement, very old, already existed in the late 1990s for NOx. But it has been applied only once, “says Isabelle Roussel, President of the Association for the Prevention of Air Pollution (Appa). “Then there was also free public transport, she adds. But today, alert thresholds decreased, and the situation could happen much more often. “In Paris,” a simpler measure would divert heavy vehicles from the center of the capital. It is possible, but it is providing an incentive. “In this regard, the committee discussed ways to distinguish the most polluting vehicles. This could be done on the basis of color vignettes allocated according to the degree of pollution of each type of vehicle.

Air pollution is a real public health issue. A large epidemiological study conducted in Europe and presented in 2011 had concluded that increased morbidity populations. She spoke of 19,000 additional deaths related to air pollution. In France, more recent work of the Institute of Health Surveillance (INVS) shows that compliance with WHO standards (10 ug/m3 for the microparticles, against the 14-20 ug/m3 recorded in all cities) would differ 2,900 deaths per year on average.

Moreover, France is under threat of a fine European tens of millions of euros for non-compliance with the limit values ??for particulate matter (PM10, the larger dust) in fifteen cities.