People come from all over the world to admire the sparkling glaciers and snowy peaks of Mont-Blanc. They do not expect traffic pollution exceeding rush-hour levels on the Champs-Elysées. A two year study by the Air de l’Ain et des pays de Savoie based in Chambéry has shown that pollution levels consistently exceed European norms and could be life threatening to sufferers from respiratory illnesses.
The study was carried out from January 2002 to March 2004 in order to examine the effects on air pollution from the reopening of the Mont-Blanc tunnel following the fire in 1999. For the purposes of the report a new air monitoring station was installed in 2001 in the village of Bossons near the entrance to the Mont-Blanc tunnel on the French side.
The report has two primary conclusions. The contribution to air pollution by heavy goods vehicles is very clear. The road is also taken by 15,000 cars each day but the analysis of the pollution levels shows that it follows those periods when HGVs are passing through the tunnel.
The reopening of the tunnel to trucks has lead to increased levels of sulphur dioxide (SO2). SO2 is a colourless gas that can cause breathing problems and respiratory illness and can be fatal to asthma sufferers and people with cardiovascular diseases; it also damages crops and is a factor in acid rain. In 2004 the average level of sulphur dioxide was 44 microgrammes, the European Union has set a legal limit 40 microgrammes.
With the closure of the Frejus tunnel, situated in the Maurienne valley until September, 2005 at the earliest following a fire in which two people were killed the number of HGVs passing through the valley is set to rocket from under 1000 per day to 1500. The Frejus tunnel was carrying just under 4,000 HGVs per day before the fire. The Mont-Blanc tunnel has a maximum capacity of 5000 trucks per day. Relations between the residents of the Maurienne valley in the Savoie and Chamonix in the Haute-Savoie are somewhat frosty with some seeing this as payback time following the long closure of the Mont-Blanc tunnel. The French transport minister Gilles de Robien has called for more lorries to be moved by rail. A pilot project using the Modalohr system of low loading wagons has been operating since 2003 between Bourgneuf in France and Orbassano in Italy but has met limited use.
The Frejus tunnel should fully reopen for lorry traffic on the 23rd of August. Currently lorries are only permitted in one direction at a time. The tunnel is fully open for car and motorcycle traffic. This should help to relieve Chamonix but of course does not solve the problem of heavy truck traffic in the Chamonix and Maurienne valleys.
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