For more than a decade steel giant ArcelorMittal is said to have exposed residents of Fos-sur-Mer on France's Mediterranean coast to toxic pollutants, some of them carcinogenic, at levels that breach legal thresholds. The world’s second-largest steelmaker is also accused of having covered up several of its offences by faking records of pollutant emissions at its steel plant there.
Now, after six years of investigation led by the environmental division of the prosecution authorities in nearby Marseille, ArcelorMittal is the subject of a criminal investigation into these allegations. According to Mediapart's information, the company was placed under formal investigation on March 19th over claims that its steel plant at Fos-sur-Mer endangered lives, over allegations of forgery and the use of forged instruments, and for breaches of environmental law. The multinational, which denies the claims, has been placed under judicial supervision, with bail set at 250,000 euros and a bank guarantee fixed at 1,750,000 euros.
When contacted by Mediapart, the Marseille public prosecutor, Nicolas Bessone “confirmed” the “investigation into ArcelorMittal” but declined to comment further.
Launched in 2019, the inquiry follows a complaint filed in November 2018 by several trade unions, environmental groups, and more than 100 residents of Fos-sur-Mer and nearby towns, represented by lawyer Julie Andreu. Located around 30 miles from the major Mediterranean city of Marseille, this industrial zone, one of the largest in Europe, houses chemical and petrochemical plants, along with ArcelorMittal’s steelworks.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
This industrial zone alone accounts for nearly 20% of the country’s industrial emissions. When breathed in, some of these substances can lead to cancer and heart and lung disease. A study funded by the food, environment and workplace safety body, the Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Alimentation, de l’Environnement et du Travail (ANSES), in the Fos-sur-Mer area found that cancer rates among men there were nearly twice the national average, while for women they were three times higher. Two-thirds of the local population suffer from at least one long-term illness, which is twice the national average.
A damning report on ArcelorMittal
Benzene, benzo[a]pyrene, fine particles (PM2.5 and PM10 in size), lead and cadmium; to this list of substances known to cause cancer and genetic and reproductive damage one can also add other toxic agents such as nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide. This cocktail of fumes leaving ArcelorMittal’s plant has regularly exceeded legal emission limits, as first revealed by independent Marseille-based news website Marsactu.
And far from being rare, these breaches have occurred over more than 10 years and sometimes on a near daily basis. In 2022 emissions of the extremely toxic gas nitrogen oxide exceeded legal thresholds on more than 300 occasions. Other substances, such as benzene, a known cause of cancer, have been discharged at levels up to three times the legal limit. The same is true for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and fine particles, which are linked to 40,000 deaths in France each year.
A source close to the case said these frequent “breaches” amounted to “non-compliance at twice the legal limit”.
According to findings from an expert's report that forms part of the investigation case and which has been seen by Mediapart, not only has ArcelorMittal repeatedly breached legal limits, but from 2014 to 2019 “nearly a third” of polluting discharges that should have been under continuous monitoring were not checked at all. “It has been clearly shown,” the court-appointed expert wrote, “that ArcelorMittal has committed a serious failure to comply with official orders.” For example, up until 2019, only 7% of toxic and carcinogenic substances were periodically monitored by the company with the required frequency.
“It is important to highlight,” the expert added, “that the failure to monitor emissions from certain installations may have prevented the detection of breaches, the ordering of remedial work, and the enforcement of compliance measures” by the authorities responsible for overseeing the site, namely the environmental, planning and housing directorate the Direction Régionale de l'Environnement, de l'Aménagement et du Logement (DREAL).
Failings at the local state prefecture
According to the report “many of the breaches could have been avoided or lessened with better upkeep of the equipment”. While some repairs were ordered by DREAL inspectors or pledged by the company, investigators found their roll-out to be “slow” and “far too late”.
It took more than 10 years, for instance, for ArcelorMittal to set up a smoke-recirculation system called 'Mistral', which can cut pollutant emissions by 25%. Though its installation was demanded as early as 2007 under a decree from the local state prefect, the steel giant did not put it in operation until March 2017, with the prefecture raising no objections over the delay. Even worse, as soon as it was switched on the system broke down, and remained out of action for two years.
A lack of maintenance has led to a growing number of serious mishaps at the site. On the night of March 8th 2022, nearly 75,000 cubic metres of toxic, carcinogenic gases were spewed into the air. The cause was a power failure, which forced the shutdown of certain installations in the coking plant, and which lead to the huge release of fumes. This was the sixth such incident in a year. And the problem was not new; it had been an issue since at least 2018.
It is hard for the multinational to plead a lack of funds when it has posted more than one billion euros in profits and, since 2014, has received nearly one billion euros from the state and the European Union for its plants in France. For the Mistral project alone, it was handed eight million euros in aid from the Environment Ministry through the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME). Despite these funds, there is a flagrant lack of maintenance at the Fos-sur-Mer site, and backlogs keep piling up.
Investigators note that ArcelorMittal appears to have been given favourable treatment by the state prefecture, which went against current legislation. The need to measure the levels of certain pollutants was stipulated under ministerial orders and was supposed to be carried out without delay, yet the prefecture, which was tasked with making sure this happened, dragged its feet for more than ten years in some cases. This was especially true for certain volatile organic compounds, toxic agents that cause lung disease.
Even more shocking is that the fact that the company was simply allowed to “increase the amount of waste released”, say the investigators, who highlight a “failure in the oversight of the plant by the classified installations inspectorate”. Thus refers to state inspectors tasked with monitoring sites which might pose a risk to the environment and the public.
Flawed and skewed studies
When it comes to the harm caused by such pollution, the expert's report questioned the soundness of two health impact studies carried out by ArcelorMittal, in particular the most recent one from 2018, later updated in 2021. These studies concluded that the “ArcelorMittal site does not pose significant health risks”.
The expert report criticised the fact that these studies relied on “annual regulatory flow averages” without taking into account the “operating cycles of the installations or the breaches of emission limits”. Yet emission spikes can lead to higher short-term exposure and “acute or subchronic risks”, the expert noted.
The report also pointed out that these studies were “not subject to third-party review, even though the rules allow for this, particularly for complex industrial sites”.
ArcelorMittal is also said to have used underhand means to cover up its breaches. According to initial findings gathered by investigators, the company falsified several reports submitted to watchdogs, omitting pollutant discharges that exceeded legal limits. The probe into the forging of documents has been backed up in particular by the statement of a former worker, who gave evidence to investigators.
This criminal investigation into ArcelorMittal, particularly over the risks faced by local people, is a first in the region. Here, campaign groups and residents who first brought the case have been fighting for more than 20 years to understand and then stop the wave of cancer and lung disease cases they were seeing. Some, such as Sylvie A., did not live to see the outcome. Born and raised in Fos-sur-Mer, she spoke in 2017 to France Culture public radio station about her illness and wondered what had caused the three cancers which subsequently led to her death in November 2021, at the age of 58.
In a statement sent to news agencies AFP and Reuters after Mediapart broke the story of the criminal investigation, ArcelorMittal said it “firmly contests the accusations”, adding that it is “fully cooperating with the authorities responsible for handling complaints filed by residents and environmental associations related to the Fos-sur-Mer site”.
The multinational said it has done “everything possible to ensure that emissions from the Fos-sur-Mer site comply with the prescribed annual limit values” and said that there had been “no falsification of data”.
It added that since 2014 it had invested “more than 735 million euros, notably to modernize its facilities or innovate to reduce emission levels, whose regulatory thresholds are increasingly stringent”. Such actions had enabled ArcelorMittal to reduce atmospheric emissions from the site by 70% compared with 2002, the Luxembourg-based group said.
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- The original French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter