Section:GDN 1N PaGe:21 Edition Date:190731 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 30/7/2019 18:17 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Wednesday 31 July 2019 The Guardian •World^21
Activists fi le lawsuit over ‘toxic
fallout’ from Notre Dame fi re
Angelique Chrisafi s
ParisThe French authorities are under
growing pressure over possible health
risks from the Notre Dame cathedral
fi re, with an environmental group
fi ling a lawsuit saying swift action
was not taken to contain potential
lead poisoning from the blaze and a
fi refi ghters’ union raising concerns.
Hundreds of tonnes of lead in the
cathedral spire and roof melted in
the extreme heat of the fi re in April.
Lead particles dispersed into the air
and settled on streets and buildings in
surrounding neighbourhoods.
Offi cials have insisted there was
no danger to residents. But pressure
has mounted on Paris authorities and
health offi cials in recent days over the
safety of schools as well as the healthof hundreds of fi re fi ghters and the
construction workers who have been
shoring up the site.
The French environmental cam-
paign group Robin des Bois this week
fi led a lawsuit saying: “The relevant
authorities, including the diocese ...
neglected to assist residents, visitors
and workers, allowing them to be
exposed to the toxic fallout.”The lawsuit accuses health agen-
cies, government offi cials and the
city of Paris of “deliberately putting
people in danger” by not immediately
taking measures to limit exposure to
the contamination.
Environmental campaigners have
said there were potentially high lev-
els of lead in dust at ground level at
schools and creches near the cathe-
dral and that swift remedial action was
not taken.
Clean-up work at Notre Dame was
halted last weekend. Workers were
sent home after a government offi cial
acknowledged anti-contamination
measures were insuffi cient.
The Paris prefect, Michel Cadot ,
the government’s top offi cial for the
Paris region, said strict controls should
have been introduced in the heavily
contaminated interior of the cathe-
dral, as well as in surrounding areas.INXS lead guitarist
sues boat company
over severed fi nger
Associated PressTim Farriss, lead guitarist of the rock
band INXS, is suing the operators of a
rental boat after his fi nger was severed
by anchoring equipment, an event he
says ended his career.
Farriss, 61, is seeking damages from
the Sydney boat’s operators, John Wil-
liam Axford and Jill Mary Axford, of
Church Point Charter, after the inci-
dent in 2015.
The guitarist, who hired the boat
for a cruise on 24 January , said he and
his wife, Beth, sailed into Akuna Bay,
north of Sydney , but struggled to set
anchor as the chain was “prone to
kinking ”. He said it spun out of control.
He suff ered a severed left ring fi nger
and serious injuries to his index and
middle fi nger. He had 11 hours of sur-
gery to reattach the fi nger, which was
no longer functional, he said. “I am no
longer able to play guitar other than a
few beginner-level chords.”
In a statement for the New South
Wales sup reme court case, he says his
fi ngers were “disfi gured, badly lacer-
ated and bleeding”. The defendants
failed to properly instruct him on using
the equipment and did not maintain a
fully working anchor system.
The Axfords say Farriss was given
instructions but failed to take due care.▲ Lead melted in the fi re and airborne
particles settled in surrounding areasAfrofuturism show under fi re
for having no black artists
Lanre Bakare
Arts and culture correspondentThe organisers of an exhibition
inspired by the Afrofuturism move-
ment and the tech entrepreneur Elon
Musk have been criticised for not
including a single black artist.
Opening in Berlin today , the
Künstler haus Bethanien’s Space is thePlace exhibition – which takes its name
from a song by the avant-garde free
jazz group Sun Ra Arkestra – has fallen
into “old curatorial habits” that favour
white men, according to an activist
group called Soup du Jour.
In an open letter, the group points
out that of 22 artists involved in the
show, 18 are white men, three are
white women, and there is just one
person of colour, the Singaporeanartist Song-Ming Ang , who repre-
sented his country at this year’s Venice
Biennale.
The group – an anonymous col-
lection of curators, cultural activists
and museum workers – sa id the
gallery’s curator, Christoph Tannert,
was promoting “white muskulinity”.
“So you’re saying this exhibition
aligns itself with the vision of a South
African billionaire who wishes to
colonise as much territory as possible
for the sake of immense personal and
corporate enrichment?” the statement
said, alluding to Musk’s stated aim of
settling 80,000 people on Mars.
It added: “We can only congratulate‘Completely moronic’
Trump wine tax under fi reDonald Trump’s threat to tax French
wines in retaliation for a proposed
levy aimed at big US technology
companies is “completely moronic”,
France’s agriculture minister, Didier
Guillaume, has said.
French plans to put a 3% tax on
the “GAFAs” – Google, Amazon,
Facebook and Apple – drew an
angry response last week from the
US president, who warned that
he would announce “substantial
reciprocal action”.
Trump told reporters : “I told
them, I said, ‘Don’t do it because
if you do it, I’m going to tax your
wine.’” He added that, despite being
teetotal, he has always preferred
American wine.
Yesterday Guillaume hit back,
telling BFM TV: “It’s absurd, in
terms of having a political and
economic debate, to say that if you
tax the ‘GAFAs’, I’ll tax wine. It’s
completely moronic.
“American wine is not better than
French wine,” he added. Reutersyou heartily on managing to success-
fully man your mission to outer space
with a list of artists that deftly margin-
alises all artists other than white men .”
In a statement Tannert said the
gallery hosted “at least 50% female
artists, many of them people of colour”
on an annual basis.
He said Afrofuturism “draws
together elements of astral jazz,
African- American sci-fi and psyche-
delic hip-hop into an all-encompassing
philosophy, imagining alternative
visions of tomorrow” and had infl u-
enced artists musicians and authors.
Musk has been approached for
comment.Increased safety precautions were
being put in place.
Paris city hall has closed a nursery
and primary school that were jointly
hosting a holiday club for 180 children
in Paris’s sixth arrondissement “as a
precautionary measure” after tests
revealed high levels of lead in their
shared playground.
Other schools are being “deep
cleaned”, with walls and furniture
to be wiped and playgrounds hosed
down during the summer holidays to
remove dust. Local offi cials said this
was being done to reassure residents
that “the risk is minimal”. Tests are
continuing at other schools.
Sébastien Delavoux , a fi re fi ghter
and representative of the CGT union,
said he was concerned that not enough
had been done to decontaminate fi re
engines and equipment used to put out
the fi re and questioned whether suffi -
cient health support and testing had
been given to fi re offi cers. He said his
union had written to the authorities.
Shortly after the fi re, the Paris police
advised local people to clean surfaces
with a damp cloth and said pregnant
women and children should wash their
hands frequently. They said here was
no risk of toxic inhalation from the air.▲ Tim Farriss says he can now only
play beginner-level chordsRace against
the tide
B elgian shrimp
fi shermen
work their
horses at low
water near
O ostduinkerke,
the only place
in E urope
where the
ancient
practice of
shrimp fi shing
with horses
still goes on.PHOTOGRAPH: YVES
HERMAN/REUTERSРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
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