Early Health Impact Assessment Of A Major Industrial Fire At A Chemical Plant On September 26, 2019, Rouen, France

After the industrial fire in Rouen on September 26, health impacts were monitored for one month to detect any increased recourse to emergency care and to describe acute symptoms potentially associated with the fire or its odors. The assessment was based mainly on data from emergency departments and the French poison control and toxicovigilance centers, and on odor-related symptoms reported to local air quality monitoring networks. The symptoms described involved essentially respiratory and gastrointestinal irritation, not requiring substantial recourse to emergency care. These results will later be supplemented by a study assessing the short- and medium-term perceived health impacts of the fire on physical and mental health.