EU calls for new housing laws after Toulouse Petrochemical Blast Reuters 2oct01

STRASBOURG, France - The blast at a French petrochemicals plant last week that killed 29 people has heightened the need for new laws to separate hazardous industrial factories from residential areas, the European Commission said yesterday.

The huge blast at the site on the outskirts of the southern city of Toulouse of the AZF unit of oil giant TotalFinaElf injured thousands of people and destroyed some 10,000 homes. Europe's Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said that in the wake of the explosion at a fireworks factory in the Dutch town of Entschede last year, the Commission had been working on new legislation to tighten controls over such sites.

"There was one factor which aggravated the consequences of the accident in Toulouse as well as in Entschede, and that is the proximity of the establishments to inhabited areas," Wallstrom told the European Parliament.

She said the Commission was working on updating existing planning legislation to force the separation of any new housing zones from potentially dangerous factories. However, the new laws would not be retroactive, she added.

More than 15,000 people took to the streets of Toulouse at the weekend to condemn the blast. The environmental group Friends of the Earth has for years condemned the existence of residential areas in Toulouse near a chemical industrial area, which includes AZF and an explosives factory.

The blast was initially put down to an accident, but officials have become more circumspect on the cause.

The city's chief prosecutor announced last week he would launch a manslaughter probe on the basis that criminal negligence could have been behind the explosion.

Wallstrom said the Commission had no indication that either the operators of the plant or the French authorities had ignored current EU legislation which requires them to set up contingency emergency plans and conduct frequent inspections.