PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2019) Streets around Paris's iconic Notre Dame cathedral were closed to traffic and pedestrians on Tuesday as work began to clean hazardous lead dust from the site, local media said.
The cleanup will be conducted in three phases corresponding to three areas, according to the RTL radio. Detergent-laced water will be poured on even surfaces at high pressure, while finer details will be cleansed with special gel.
Reconstruction of the cathedral was halted last month over fears that workers could inhale lead residue after Paris authorities admitted that its concentration exceeded the safe level.
The Paris prefecture said in a statement last Saturday that decontamination would continue until August 23.
Hundreds of tonnes of lead contained in Notre Dame's roof and spire melted when the 850-year-old Gothic church went up in flames in April. President Emmanuel Macron promised to have it rebuilt within five years.
