Health authorities in Paris have urged children and pregnant women living around Notre Dame Cathedral to have the levels of lead in their blood checked amid concerns about the impact of the fire.
The appeal comes after a child living on the Île de la Cité island in central Paris where Notre Dame is located was found to have high levels of lead in a blood test.
Some of the hundreds of tonnes of lead in the spire and the roof melted in the extreme heat from the blaze.
An investigation has been launched to check if the causes of the child’s high lead levels could be other than the 15 April fire, the Paris regional health authority said in a statement on Monday. The child showed a level above the regulatory limit level of 50 microgrammes per litre of blood.
The authority said that as a precaution it was asking families with children aged under seven and pregnant women living on the Île de la Cité to consult their GPs so they could be prescribed a blood test for lead levels.
Authorities acknowledge that the Notre Dame fire caused lead to leak into the air and ground around the cathedral. They say there is no general risk to the public but certain areas have been closed off while people with apartments close to the cathedral are being given specific advice on how to clean up.
Paris is still dealing with the damage to one of the city’s best known and loved edifices. The architect in charge of the restoration said on Tuesday that an identical spire should be rebuilt, after Emmanuel Macron mooted an “inventive” reconstruction.
The spire – designed by 19th-century French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc – collapsed as fire ravaged the cathedral.
“I think we don’t just have to rebuild a spire, we have to rebuild it in an identical way,” said Philippe Villeneuve, a senior French architect specialised in charge of restoration at Notre Dame.
The government has announced an architectural competition for the spire with options to have a new one built, an identical restoration or no spire at all.
