2023-11-19 17:50:15
The Sanofi factory in Mourenx (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), October 16, 2018. IROZ GAIZKA / AFP
The Dépakine scandal has perhaps not revealed all its secrets, nor revealed all its victims. The antiepileptic drug marketed since 1967 by the Sanofi laboratory is responsible for malformations and neurodevelopmental disorders in thousands of children of mothers treated during pregnancy. According to testimonies collected by The world, similar pathologies are present in children of residents living near the factory who produces Dépakine, in Mourenx (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), and workers frequenting the industrial zone. No mother has taken the drug, all wonder about the link with the release of sodium valproate, its active ingredient, into the air around the site.
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This is the case of Mélanie S. (who wishes to remain anonymous), whose two children have neurodevelopmental disorders similar to those observed in children exposed in utero to Dépakine. Mélanie S. has never taken Dépakine, but has worked since 2011 in an office located about fifty meters from the Sanofi chimney. After years of hesitation, her daughter’s autism diagnosis in July, after that of her son three years earlier, made her decide to take legal action. On Wednesday November 15, a complaint was filed against X for endangering others with the public health unit of the Paris judicial court.
This center has been responsible for an investigation since the prosecution opened a judicial investigation in 2022, in particular for endangering others, after the revelation, in July 2018, of massive releases into the atmosphere of sodium valproate and bromopropane (classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic and possible reprotoxic) by the Sanofi Mourenx factory. Mélanie S. is an engineer. “I am a scientist. I can’t confirm anything. I wonder about the link between my exposure and the disorders observed in my childrenshe explains. My hope is that justice will take up this complaint to answer my questions and investigate beyond my case into what could potentially be a health scandal. »
Contacted by The world, Sanofi indicates that it is not aware of the procedure. Classified as Seveso high threshold, the Mourenx site, located in the Lacq chemical basin, emitted bromopropane in very large quantities (up to 190,000 times more than the authorized value) and did not benefit from any authorization to discharge into the sodium valproate air. According to a 2018 report from the National Institute of Industrial Environment and Risksthe Sanofi factory spewed between 13 tonnes and 20 tonnes per year until 2018, the year when it was ordered by the authorities to put an end to these toxic emissions.
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