The lead story of the fire at the Notre-Dame cathedral of Paris

ABSTRACT On April 15th, Parisians watched in shock as Notre-Dame de Paris, the iconic cathedral that towered over Paris for almost 900 years, was engulfed in flames. Although flames destroyed the spire and considerably weakened the structure, no human lives were lost. However, some amounts of lead volatilized and deposited in the surrounding area and fears of potential intoxication began to rise. We investigated the impact of this fire on the blood lead levels of adults in Paris according to the distance between the cathedral and where they live or work. The geometric mean of blood lead levels (GM-BLL) of the study population was 1.49μg/dl (95% CI [1.38-1.62]) with a prevalence of BLL≥5.0μg/dL at 5.0%. Despite the early legitimate fears of intoxication, the fire that destroyed a significant part of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris did not cause increased BLL for adults living and working in the vicinity.