Notre-Dame’s Fire and lead fall out

In April 2019, the Paris Notre Dame cathedral burnt down. 

The same year and the next (during the pandemic), the world’s super wealthy were still moving to Paris, mostly to the inner city. This inner city is now contaminated with lead dust. At the beginning of 2022 the BARNES international City Index ranked Paris in the 5^th place in the list of the most popular domiciles of the global elites.  Here, wealthy or ultra-high net worth (UHNW), means a net worth of 30 million USD or more.

Paris was 1^st in the index released in 2020, 7^th in 2021, and 5^th in 2022 and again number 1 in the 2023 ranking. “Paris tops the list of the most desirable cities for high-net-worth individuals, followed by Miami and New York.”

Meanwhile, the Paris inner city is still contaminated with lead dust, only in trace amounts, but sufficient to make everyone chronically ill within years. Everybody breathes it in. Apparently, money does not protect from putting oneself in harm’s way. Granted, people of 30 million + usually have several homes around the world, they don’t spend all their time in their resident city, but that is usually where their children spend most of their time. 

“Notre Dame’s roof, composed of approximately 450 tons of lead, quickly melted as the fire temperatures exceeded 1,400° F. As the smoke’s distinct yellow tinge suggested, the lead vaporized and created a toxic fallout of lead dust that was deposited across Paris.”

“Lead oxide is highly soluble in body fluids. The particle size of the metal fumes ranges between 0.1- 0.7 microns, which increases the likelihood of inhalation and deposition of the fume directly into the bloodstream.”

This finest lead dust is in every nook and cranny in every pore of architectural structure, in ventilation systems on every wall, it cannot be cleaned up with any efficiency, it is being hurled up by every breeze from gravel parkways and playgrounds. It will take decades for the lead to be dispersed to tolerable levels. 

And this even after the city took” four months to complete a deep-clean operation of the sidewalks as tourists, residents and merchants walked streets around the cathedral daily.”

According to the New York Times, “the levels of lead dust deposited near the cathedral were up to 1,300 times higher than French safety guidelines.”

Official safety levels in the environment are absolutely inadequate when it concerns chronic, accumulated lead toxicity. As an example, a 2020 US study found that already 3 one-hundredths of a milligram of lead (30 micrograms or 0.00003 grams) in the blood of a 10-year-old girl has a detrimental effect on later fertility.  That’s less than the smallest speck of dust that you can see with the naked eye. 

It is obviously impossible to clean the city so thoroughly that no child ever inhales an invisibly small speck of lead dust, just 3 years after 450 tons of lead rained down.

The CDC, which determines reference levels for the maximum amount of lead in the US, also says ‘there is no safe level of lead in the blood of children.” 

An NHANES extension study of 2018, published in the Lancet revealed:  18 % of deaths of “all causes” in the US are attributed to lead toxicity. 

And this is concerning only lead, not including the other 23 known toxic metals.

“Lead is more commonly detected in the indoor air in houses of children with atopic dermatitis, even with concentrations of airborne lead below the safety levels suggested by health guidelines.”

Those international super wealthy who are flocking to Paris evidently belong to either of two groups:

1. They are just as clueless as the rest of the population when it comes to the long-term effects of accumulated, chronic heavy metal toxicity. 

2. Some are aware of the danger and they don’t care because they are routinely checked with so called challenge toxic metal tests and routinely undergo preemptive and harmless chelation therapy, before the toxic metal burden can become problematic. 

As early as the 1980s, publicly available studies showed: In patients who had symptoms of lead poisoning, but no sign of cancer, EDTA chelation therapy preemptively led to a 90% reduction in later cancer death. During the 18-year observation period (1959-1976), 17 % of the non-chelation treated patients got cancer and died of it. Only 1.7 % of the chelation treated patients got cancer and died of it). 

In Paris, only two families, along with a health association and a trade union, sue authorities for “gross negligence”. 

“Despite the scale of the fire and knowledge about the risk of pollution and contamination, no precaution in particular was taken by the authorities involved for more than three months after the fire,” their legal complaint says, according to AFP news agency.

At least, all workers involved in the Notre Dame restoration are required to wear protective hazardous material suits and respirators and they must regularly take blood tests for lead. Also, health authorities ‘recommended’ lead blood tests for small children and pregnant women. Most residents are not tested at all. Unfortunately, these blood tests (that are not challenge- or provocation tests) cannot give any meaningful results. After 3 months, 95% of lead has moved to the bones, only fractions of 0.1 % can be found in the blood, if any.

Similarly to lead, “mercury does not last more than 48 hours in the blood and therefore in the urine.” After this, it is either defused in the tissue or it is eliminated.

The New York Times reported in September 2019: 

“The fire that engulfed Notre-Dame contaminated the cathedral site with clouds of toxic dust and exposed nearby schools, day care centers, public parks and other parts of Paris to alarming levels of lead.”

“The lead came from the cathedral’s incinerated roof and spire, and it created a public health threat that stirred increasing anxiety in Paris throughout the summer.”

Barnes international reports “the high-end real estate market has for decades only concerned certain districts in the west and center of Paris, it now extends to all 20 districts.” Antoine-Marie Preaut, Regional Curator for historical Monuments, Paris says the smoke traveled east to west, the highest lead concentrations were found on the square in front of the cathedral. 

Half of the drinking water of Paris comes from the rivers Seine and Marne. Michelle Obama happened to be on a private cruse on the river Seine passing the Notre Dame as it was burning.

Prevention

Toxic heavy metals (non-essential metals) can worsen every known chronic disease or independently cause it. They accumulate and remain in the body for decades, where they can actively and perpetually disrupt any body function.

Wherever you live, whether you have any chronic illness or not, everyone should go to a certified metal toxicologist and receive a challenge (or provoked urine) heavy metal test for the 10 or more most relevant toxic metals with a complete blood count (differentiated blood count). The two together can cost over 500 USD. 

USA: Arizona Natural, Calcium-Dinatrium-EDTA, 600 mg, 100 Kapseln ; 600mg 3 times per week

Europa: Calcium-Dinatrium-EDTA, 600 mg, 100 Kapseln ; 600mg 3 times per week

+ the daily recommended value of vitamins and minerals; ‘all in one’ supplement (13 vitamin and 10 minerals).