After a visit in late March from French President Nicholas Sarkozy to Niger, residents in the uranium-exporting desert country continue questioning whether AREVA...will honour its promise to protect communities from mining hazards...The...Commission of Research and Independent Information on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD) has written of “serious safety lapses” in and near AREVA mining sites in Niger...The AREVA majority-owned mine...COMINAK...commissioned an environmental study...in 2006, which reported that the number of deaths linked to respiratory infections was twice as high in the mining town...as in the rest of the country...But AREVA dismisses the link between mining and elevated health problems in its January 2009 report on mining activities in Niger. “These problems are typical in desert zones…they are not linked to mining activities.” [Also refers to Somair (joint venture Areva & Govt of Niger)]