"Chemical factory closed in south west France after toxic waste outcry", 10 July 2018

French pharmaceuticals group Sanofi announced [...] an immediate halt in production at a chemical factory in southwest France, in the wake of media reports that toxic waste emissions exceeded the norms...

It added that it was conducting an internal inquiry "to better understand the causes and history of the situation." ...

Sanofi had admitted there was "a problem of exceeding the threshold for the vapour waste of solvents," but it insisted that the local population was not exposed to levels higher than those laid down by regulation, a finding it said was determined by an independent health impact study...

France Nature Environment (FNE) [...] had demanded the immediate shutdown of the factory, noting in particular that the chemical compound bromopropane in the emissions can hurt fertility or the foetus, and also irritate a person's respiratory system and the skin.

Sanofi meanwhile said that it has already instituted an action plan to collect and treat the waste to significantly reduce it...