Suspicion of lead pollution at the Mauguio shooting range: “We hid the poverty”

Arnaud Deliencourt, président du Club de tir de Mauguio-Carnon, devant la butte où finissent les balles.

The president of the Sport Shooting Club closed the range on Thursday, August 29 due to suspected contamination. A calculated act in the context of a duel with the town hall over the use of the site.

“It's no longer a shooting mound, it's a lead mound.” Arnaud Deliencourt, president of the Mauguio-Carnon Sport Shooting Club, does not mince his words when talking about the health situation in the shooting range where the association is located. According to him, the mound behind the targets now contains tons of lead, risking pollution and lead poisoning.

On Thursday, August 29, he contacted the Regional Health Agency (ARS), the prefecture and the town hall of the commune, to announce that the club was invoking a right of withdrawal due to the situation. The premises are closed until further notice, pending analyses to determine the health and environmental consequences.

A calculated act

The timing of the closure announcement is not insignificant. The sport shooting club has been in open conflict with the town hall since the latter, owner of the shooting range premises, announced that they had to leave the premises from 1 September, to reserve the site solely for law enforcement training.

On 14 August, Arnaud Deliencourt had announced in the columns of Midi Libre that he was refusing this decision, starting a standoff on behalf of the association's 900 members.

The town hall remains unmoved

But for the town hall of Mauguio-Carnon, the requisition of the shooting range for the police is not a fool's errand, quite the contrary.

In a press release, it maintains that “this equipment, which meets all the standards of the French Shooting Federation, will be made fully available to security personnel, after the necessary work has been completed.”

Last cartridge

It was the lack of reaction from the town hall that prompted the club president to bring out the argument of lead contamination today. “I don't hide it, I had reserved this cartridge as a last resort”, he explains.

He presents two blood tests, his own and that of a club instructor. They date from the end of May and show abnormally high levels of lead in the body.

Contaminated blood

The instructor's blood test shows a level of 216 microg per liter of blood, while the National Institute for Research and Safety at Work recommends a level not exceeding 85 microg/L. The conclusion validated by a doctor: “Medical monitoring must be initiated”.

Arnaud Deliencourt's blood test shows 115 microg/L. Unusual levels, surely linked to lead dust suspended in the air, the result of the thousands of bullets fired each year.

Almost all of the regulars at the shooting range are still out of danger. Given the concentrations, you have to stay in the shooting range for a long time to be exposed to a risk.

Arnaud Deliencourt says, however, that he is worried about the permanent employee, hired since January 15, and the instructors. “It would not be legal under labor law not to close”, he explains.

Who is responsible ?

He also questions the responsibility of the town hall. For him, as the owner of the premises, it is they who must take care of the maintenance of the mounds where the balls end up, which has not been done. “The only thing done was to cover the mound with sand to eliminate the problem. This is far from sufficient", he says.

For its part, the town hall, contacted by our editorial staff, specifies that it "will not make any specific comment on the latest statements by the president of the shooting club and his allegations of a case of lead poisoning within his association", simply specifying that it has not been contacted "neither by the State services nor by the association on this issue".