Fallout of Lead Over Paris From the 2019 Notre‐Dame Cathedral Fire

GeoHealth

Yuling Yao¹  Andrew Gelman¹  Tyler Ellis²  Alexander vanGeen² 

[1] Department of Statistics Columbia University New York, NY USA;Lamont‐Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University Palisades NY USA;

关键词: lead contamination;    fallout;    statistical modeling;    emergency response;   

DOI  :  10.1029/2020GH000279

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract The roof and spire of Notre‐Dame cathedral in Paris that caught fire and collapsed on 15 April 2019 were covered with 460 t of lead (Pb). Government reports documented Pb deposition immediately downwind of the cathedral and a twentyfold increase in airborne Pb concentrations at a distance of 50 km in the aftermath. For this study, we collected 100 samples of surface soil from tree pits, parks, and other sites in all directions within 1 km of the cathedral. Concentrations of Pb measured by X‐ray fluorescence range from 30 to 9,000 mg/kg across the area, with a higher proportion of elevated concentrations to the northwest of the cathedral, in the direction of the wind prevailing during the fire. By integrating these observations with a Gaussian process regression model, we estimate that the average concentration of Pb in surface soil downwind of the cathedral is 430 (95% interval, 300–590) mg/kg, nearly double the average Pb concentration in the other directions of 240 (95% interval, 170–320) mg/kg. The difference corresponds to an integrated excess Pb inventory within a 1 km radius of 1.0 (95% interval, 0.5–1.5) t, about 0.2% of all the Pb covering the roof and spire. This is over 6 times the estimated amount of Pb deposited downwind 1–50 km from the cathedral. To what extent the concentrated fallout within 1 km documented here temporarily exposed the downwind population to Pb is difficult to confirm independently because too few soil, dust, and blood samples were collected immediately after the fire.

【 授权许可】

Unknown