Parisians grapple with worst winter pollution in a decade
PARIS — Under deceptively blue skies, the marvels of Paris beckoned. But art dealer Sophie Vigourous wore a face mask to appreciate them because of the pollution.
The 38-year-old has lung cancer, putting her in the groups most at risk from the toxic, throat-tickling broth of tiny particles — far smaller than the width of a human hair — blanketing France’s capital and other cities. It has prompted vehicle bans and other extraordinary but only moderately effective anti-pollution measures.
When viewed from the 210-meter (690-feet) tall Montparnasse Tower, Paris’ tallest skyscraper, the city’s worst episode of winter pollution in a decade was clearly visible, a brown haze punctured by the Eiffel Tower.
But from street level, the fog of lung-penetrating pollutants was less obvious, making the danger more insidious than the gritty, almost chewy, smog of notoriously unhealthy cities like Beijing.