Where are the 1,300 Seveso sites located in France, and what are the risks?
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An explosion took place on Wednesday August 3 in a blowing snow in Bergerac (Dordogne), classified Seveso “high threshold”, injuring eight people, including one seriously. What is this classification?
What does the Seveso classification correspond to?
After a serious leak in an Italian chemical plant near the town of Seveso in 1976, which had caused major ecological and health pollution, a series of European directives were adopted to identify industrial sites which present risks and to ensure better prevention.
In France, there are approximately 500,000 industrial or agricultural facilities that may pose risks to the environment (pollution, nuisances), safety or health, 50,000 of which are subject to an authorization or registration system. But only the most dangerous establishments are classified Seveso.
The last version, Seveso 3entered into force in France in 2015. According to data from the Minister of the Environment, France had 1,301 Seveso facilities at the end of 2020, classified into two types: 692 “high threshold” and 609 “low threshold” facilities, depending on the quantity of hazardous materials present. These may be refineries, chemical plants, oil depots or even explosives depots.
Where are the Seveso establishments located in France?
The geographical distribution of these facilities is the result of two centuries of industrial development linked to the major settlement areas: the Paris basin and the course of the Seine as far as Rouen, the Lille conurbation, Lyon and the Rhône valley, as well as the region of Marseille and the Etang de Berre.
According to data dating back to 2019, approximately 2.5 million people live less than one kilometer from a Seveso-classified facility (including 1.1 million for “high threshold” sites) and 663,500 live within 500 meters (277,000 for “high threshold” sites).
How common are accidents related to Seveso sites?
The explosion of the AZF factory in Toulouse on September 21, 2001, which caused the death of 31 people and more than 2,500 injuries, is the most serious accident to have occurred in France. More recently, in 2019, an explosion occurred at the Lubrizol factory in Rouen. In total, there have been seven major accidents (which have reached severity level 6) since 2000.
According to‘inventory of the Ministry of Ecological Transition on technological incidents and accidents, accident rates were down in 2020 – a year marked by two confinements and activity restrictions – with 74 accidents in Seveso facilities, compared to 79 in 2019 and 106 in 2018 Most incidents have limited human, environmental or economic consequences (ranked 0 or 1 in the table below).
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