Viewpoint Cite This: Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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Learning from the Past: Fires, Architecture, and Environmental Lead Emissions Gaël Le Roux,*,† François De Vleeschouwer,‡ Dominik Weiss,§ Olivier Masson,∥ Eric Pinelli,† and William Shotyk⊥ †
EcoLab, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, INPT, UPS; ENSAT, Avenue de l′Agrobiopôle, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France Instituto Franco-Argentino para el Estudio del Clima y sus Impactos (UMI IFAECI/CNRS-CONICET UBA-IRD), Dpto. de Ciencias de la Atmosfera y los Oceanos, FCEN, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Intendente Guiraldes 2160 - Ciudad Universitaria, Pabellon II, C1428EGA Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina § Department of Earth Science & Engineering, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, London, U.K. ∥ Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), 92260, Fontenay Aux Roses, France ⊥ Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 348B South Academic Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H1, Canada ̂ de la Cité” and because of located on a river island called “Ile the large amount of water used by the firefighters. To date, there is still little published data on the concentrations found in the surrounding soil and other environmental compartments, but the first results stated by the French authorities2 mentioned Pb soil concentrations on the order of 10 g kg−1, demonstrating the intensity of the Pb contamination and presumably other related metals such as antimony or arsenic. Several decades after the pioneering work of Patterson3 and colleagues on global lead contamination, we have not yet seen the extent of the pervasiveness of this metal in historical cities, especially in old European urban centers as well as in younger buildings. This is not the first time, however, that a historical building containing several hundred tons of lead caught fire.4 The cathedral of Reims (France) in 1914 caught fire following a German attack during the first World War. The witnesses had already reported the fusion of lead escaping by the mouth of the gargoyles. The Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed dozens of churches, including the old St. Paul’s Cathedral and its hundreds of tons of lead. Again, witnesses had reported the melting of lead and the unbreathable atmosphere. The list of large building fires is indeed impressive. Chartres cathedral ead is a toxic element with no benefit for life. burnt several times (1506 A.D., 1836 A.D.) as well other Anthropogenic lead concentrations have increased globFrench monuments Rouen cathedral (1822), Bayeux (1676), ally since the beginnings of metallurgy more than 5000 years or abroad Saint Nicolas church (Hamburg, 1842), Santiago de ago, with consequences on human health and ecosystems.1 Chile (1842), etc. Sometimes the fires were caused by The fire of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris on the evening plumbers (roofers) themselves as in Chartres: “the lead roofing, the chestnut forest that supports it, the frame of the two spires and of the 15th and into the night of April 15th to 16th 2019 the bells have been destroyed”.4 In fact, a quick Internet search reminds us the importance of lead use in historical monushows that every European city can still remember a burnt ments. In a way, lead was today’s plastic: pervasive. It has been church where lead was massively present as a roof material. used everywhere especially in large medieval prestige buildings, Earlier, in Antiquity, ancient cities were heavy users of lead. in the construction of roofs, pipes, stained glass windows, The Romans for example used lead for pipes and lead flashing. coffins, etc. Large fires destroyed Antic cities such as the famous Great Fire During the fire of the Notre Dame cathedral, at least 450 of Rome in 64 A.D. tons of lead were on site, mainly in the spire and the roof. This Since the seminal work of Patterson et al.,5 we know that it is quantity is significantly higher than the present-day annual possible to use environmental records to reconstruct lead levels French atmospheric lead emissions (∼100 tons). Due to the and thus the dispersion of lead in the environment as a result intensity of the fire, part of the lead melted, potentially of human activities. The purely atmospheric records of peat vaporized, and emitted fine particles including lead oxides which later deposited on surrounding soils or were transported by wind. Another part of the lead contained in Notre Dame Received: June 29, 2019 was probably dispersed in the Seine river as the cathedral is
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© XXXX American Chemical Society
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b03869 Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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Environmental Science & Technology
Figure 1. Sketch on how environmental archives can be used to investigate Pb emissions from large fires in the past in the light of recent fire of Notre Dame de Paris. Particle dispersion was evaluated using Hysplit model6
cores allow an annual resolution. The Colle Gnifetti ice core10 and the NGRIP2 ice core11 shows an unprecedented resolution with many large Pb spikes, some of which could be assigned to past cathedral and city fires (Figure 1). Mc Connell et al.11 estimated European lead emissions of 300 tons to 3800 tons in the first century A.D., a quantity of Pb comparable to what was potentially emitted by Notre Dame fire. Although environmental records have not yet demonstrated their relevance in assessing the impact of the dispersal of lead and other heavy metals from fires of historical monuments, it is now time, in the light of the past, to anticipate the legacy and consequences of the presence of tons of lead in those monuments as well as in younger buildings. Learning from the past using sediment, peat, and ice archives can help to reevaluate the unusual route of lead dispersion and potential Pb exposure due to urban fires.
bogs and alpine or arctic glaciers show an increase in concentrations of metals, including lead, following the onset and development of metallurgy. Aquatic sediments (river, lake, coastal, oceanic) record both air pollution and the dispersion of lead from the local watershed (Figure 1). The pulse of lead following the fire of a single cathedral is not negligible as shown for the Notre Dame cathedral fire. Can we track this Pb pulse from city fires in environmental archives? Local environmental records close to damaged monuments or cities are those likely to have the highest recorded signal. A pulse of 10 000 mg kg−1 of lead in soils or sediments does not go unnoticed. However, the history of cities is eventful and it is difficult to properly reconstruct archeology. In addition, the resolution of the aquatic archives does not make it possible to discern punctual events. The most famous studies (for ex. Delile et al.7 in Antic Roma) do not cite fires as possible sources of lead in their sedimentary records. Other types of sedimentary records are also often limited by their chronological resolution. However, it may be necessary to reassess previous studies in the light of recent Notre Dame fire and its significant Pb emissions. It also shows the need for a continuous monitoring of different environmental compartments in cities to illustrate background levels of Pb and its isotopic signature to be able to distinguish potential Pb emission due to a building fire. Because peat bogs receive only atmospheric inputs, they may record Pb pulse from a large city fire. It is rare to find a peatland in the heart of a big city but it is sometimes possible (i.e., Biarritz in France, London in Canada). Additionally, if peat bogs receive only atmospheric inputs, peat cores have most of the time only a decadal resolution. European peatlands, however, are relatively close to cities, and a study of the plume trajectories of the Notre Dame fire shows that it has traveled far (Figure 1). A quick rereading of European Pb records8 shows that it is difficult to identify past lead pollution following a fire, especially because of their time resolution (exemple of Lindow bog in England.9 Figure 1). It would however be interesting to reinterpret Great Britain peat archives following the great fire of London in 1666. The dilution and remoteness of alpine and arctic glaciers makes it even more difficult to detect urban fires in ice cores. However, the technical progress and the unequaled resolution of the ice
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Gaël Le Roux: 0000-0002-1579-0178 Olivier Masson: 0000-0001-6209-6114 William Shotyk: 0000-0002-2584-8388 Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Nriagu, J. O. Lead and Lead Poisoning in Antiquity; Wiley: New York, 1983. (2) Agence Régionale de la Santé Ile de France. https://www. iledefrance.ars.sante.fr/incendie-de-notre-dame-de-paris-informationaux-riverains-sur-les-consequences-des-retombees-de (accessed June 26, 2019). (3) Patterson, C. C. Contaminated and Natural Lead Environments of Man. Arch. Environ. Health 1965, 11 (3), 344−360. (4) Petit, M. Les Grands Incendies; Librairie des Merveilles: Hachette: Paris, 1882. (5) Patterson, C. C.; Chow, T. J.; Murozumi, M. The Possibility of Measuring Variations in the Intensity of Worldwide Lead Smelting during Medieval and Ancient Times Using Lead Aerosol Deposits in Polar Snow Strata. Sci. Methods Mediev. Archaeol. 1970, 339−350. B
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b03869 Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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Environmental Science & Technology (6) Stein, A.; Draxler, R. R.; Rolph, G. D.; Stunder, B. J.; Cohen, M.; Ngan, F. NOAA’s HYSPLIT Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion Modeling System. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 2015, 96 (12), 2059−2077. (7) Delile, H.; Blichert-Toft, J.; Goiran, J.-P.; Keay, S.; Albarède, F. Lead in Ancient Rome’s City Waters. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2014, 111 (18), 6594−6599. (8) De Vleeschouwer, F.; Le Roux, G.; Shotyk, W. Peat as an Archive of Atmospheric Pollution and Environmental Change: A Case Study of Lead in Europe. PAGES Mag. 2010, 18 (1), 20−22. (9) Le Roux, G.; Weiss, D.; Grattan, J.; Givelet, N.; Krachler, M.; Cheburkin, A.; Rausch, N.; Kober, B.; Shotyk, W. Identifying the Sources and Timing of Ancient and Medieval Atmospheric Lead Pollution in England Using a Peat Profile from Lindow Bog, Manchester. J. Environ. Monit. 2004, 6 (5), 502−510. (10) More, A. F.; Spaulding, N. E.; Bohleber, P.; Handley, M. J.; Hoffmann, H.; Korotkikh, E. V.; Kurbatov, A. V.; Loveluck, C. P.; Sneed, S. B.; McCormick, M.; et al. Next-Generation Ice Core Technology Reveals True Minimum Natural Levels of Lead (Pb) in the Atmosphere: Insights from the Black Death. Geo Health 2017, 1 (4), 211−219. (11) McConnell, J. R.; Wilson, A. I.; Stohl, A.; Arienzo, M. M.; Chellman, N. J.; Eckhardt, S.; Thompson, E. M.; Pollard, A. M.; Steffensen, J. P. Lead Pollution Recorded in Greenland Ice Indicates European Emissions Tracked Plagues, Wars, and Imperial Expansion during Antiquity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2018, 115 (22), 5726− 5731.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b03869 Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
