Work to shore up the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris was halted Thursday to stop workers being exposed to hazardous levels of lead hours after two nearby schools were also closed because of contamination fears.

Environmental groups warned soon after the disaster in April that hundreds of tonnes of lead in the historic church's roof had gone up in flames, endangering the health of people who live and work nearby.

Last week authorities insisted that lead contamination from the blaze posed no danger following a media report alleging that they had covered up pollution levels in local schools.

But the top government official in the Paris region ordered work on the gutted monument to stop Thursday, saying that anti-contamination measures were not tight enough and "not being sufficiently applied".

Prefect Michel Cadot told reporters that the site at the heart of the French capital could be closed for up to a week until new safety measures are put in place.

He said that even though health and safety inspectors gave prior warning about their visits, they found safety rules were not being "systematically applied".

Cadot said strict controls should have been in place in the heavily contaminated interior of the cathedral, as well as the exits and surrounding area, which has been sealed off since the fire.

Inhaling or ingesting lead can lead to a range of health problems, including damage to the nervous and reproductive system, with children particularly vulnerable.

- Contaminated schools shut -

Paris city hall closed a nursery and primary school -- which were jointly hosting a holiday club for 180 children in Paris's 6th district -- "as a precautionary measure" after tests revealed high levels of lead in their shared playground, a municipal spokesperson told AFP.

Officials ordered a "deep clean" of schools near Notre-Dame last week, with walls and furniture to be wiped and playgrounds hosed down over the summer holidays.

French investigative website Mediapart said that high levels of lead had been detected in schools and creches surrounding Notre-Dame.

Mediapart said that the authorities had waited until a month after the fire before conducting tests in the 10 creches and schools that are within 500 metres (yards) of the monument on the Ile de la Cite island in central Paris.

One test result -- in the private Sainte-Catherine primary school -- showed 698 microgrammes of lead per square metre, 10 times higher than the 70-microgramme level considered potentially dangerous, it said.

Paris health official Arnaud Gauthier said Thursday that the cleanup was "to reassure that the risk is minimal", although Deputy Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire insisted it was normal procedure and nothing to do with the fire or lead contamination.

- Risk of collapse -

Prefect Cadot said that "all precautions must be taken" at the cathedral itself to protect workers shoring up the gutted 850-year-old building, which is still in danger of collapse.

He urged tighter safety regulations and expanded decontamination facilities.

Cadot said the square in front of the cathedral, normally a site for thousands of tourists and pilgrims, would be cleaned with a high-powered system which had been tested on a small area close to church.

Protective nets have been strung around much of the cathedral's interior to prevent further damage.

"We are not at all in the restoration (phase yet)," Notre-Dame's chief architect Philippe Villeneuve told AFP last week.

"We are still in the urgent securing" of the building, he said.

Indeed the risk of collapse is still so great that only remote-controlled machines are allowed to access some areas.

The cathedral's vaulted ceiling, on which much of the lead burned, is particularly fragile.

How to climate-proof Paris' architectural jewels
Paris (AFP) July 25, 2019 - Paris' iconic architectural style -- from its limestone facades to its shimmering zinc roofs -- may bring in millions of tourists each year but can combine to create a hell-scape for residents during a heatwave.

As climate change makes extremes such as the record-breaking temperature peaks roasting northern Europe this week more likely, the City of Light is locked in a battle to future-proof itself against heatwaves to come while preserving its heritage.

It may even be Paris' unique architectural integrity that makes adapting to warmer climates such a challenge: 80 percent of its buildings were built before 1945.

Some brick-facaded "hotels" -- old boarding houses still standing in the historic Marais quarter -- date to the 17th Century, and its unmistakeable Hausmmannian style harks back to the eponymous urban planner in the 19th.

This means many of Paris' most authentic buildings weren't built to any discernable heat efficiency standard.

The mayor's office has a plan for Paris to be carbon neutral by 2050, and its old buildings make that especially challenging.

Old residential buildings account for as much as 15 percent of the capital's greenhouse gas emissions, according to housing group Apur.

Net-zero by mid-century would need 40,000 residences to be retrofitted and to reduce emissions -- every single year until 2050, according to the Paris Climate Agency (APC).

But they also need to be rendered habitable as temperatures exceeding 40C become less and less of an aberration in the years to come.

Old buildings do have some advantages, said Fabien Gantois, from the Order of Architects of Ile-de-France.

"They adjoin each other and have reduced exchanges with external hot air," he told AFP. "And the stone facades have the capacity to keep things cooler."

Many also have courtyards that helps air to circulate.

But Parisian buildings contribute to residents' misery in other ways.

Their roofs "are not isolated, not ventilated, normally made of zinc or slate, which are dark materials," said Gantois.

Roofs painted white or containing vegetation would be far better at mitigating soaring temperatures.

The courtyards also provide another opportunity for cooling while windows let in a huge amount of heat although it is relatively cheap and easy to fit them with heat-reflecting material.

- Reluctant owners -

Being France, all this work needs paperwork to get done. In Paris specifically architects charged with conserving historic buildings often have their say over upgrades.

"There's no doctrinaire opposition," insisted Fabrice Fouriaux, from the APC, stressing that the green light depends "on the quality of the projects".

Nor is it easy to convince owners that the long term benefits of climate-proofing their homes is worth the initial outlay, which can be significant.

The APC has launched a dedicated website for owners and landlords looking to upgrade.

"What do they have to gain? Energy savings and an improved living environment," said Fouriaux.

For Gantois, there's an important balance between modernising buildings and maintaining Paris' unique aesthetic.

"The Haussmannian city was conceived with the idea of harmony.... We're not going to replace something seen nowhere else with something seen everywhere else," he said.

But even the purest of architectural traditionalists recognise that something needs doing about the roofs.

Related Links
Weather News at TerraDaily.com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

End in sight for US heat wave that set temperature records
Washington (AFP) July 21, 2019
The United States sweltered in dangerously hot weather on Sunday, with major cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington broiling in temperatures that rose into triple digits. An oppressive heat wave stretching from the Midwestern plains to the Atlantic coast had nearly 150 million people struggling to stay cool in stifling heat that set records in a handful of states. By Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service (NWS) said the high temperatures would soon be over, but the severe ... read more