"A danger to public health," the anti-pollution plan of the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture is being challenged in the administrative court by a citizens' group from Nice.

Are the inhabitants of the Alpes-Maritimes well protected from the dangers of air pollution? Invisible to the naked eye, "its health cost (...) in France represents, according to [some] studies (Senate, Public Health France) 48,000 premature deaths per year" , we can read in the 2025 Atmospheric Protection Plan (PPA) of the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture .

This Wednesday, May 14, it was precisely this document, a mandatory planning tool for urban areas with more than 250,000 inhabitants and whose development is the responsibility of the prefect, which was the subject of an appeal, examined by the administrative court of Nice.

At the helm: the Citizen Collective 06. Created in January 2019 by Thierry Bitouzé, a former executive of a CAC 40 company, and Airy Chrétien, an air force instructor, this association from the Nice basin has since been striving to get decision-makers to take action on the ecological transition.

Transport, the number 1 polluter

And for its representatives, the account is not there in this PPA, in force since April 5, 2022 in 69 municipalities of the coastal strip, grouping together 90% of the departmental population. A month after its establishment, the collective had thus attacked it before the administrative court, then waited, waited... "I understand that justice is clogged, but 3 years have passed. This plan, incomplete and not ambitious, must be renewed at the end of 2025. These are public health issues, not a personal matter," points out Thierry Bitouzé.

Among the points denounced: actions deemed "insufficient" in the transport sector, the biggest polluter on the Côte d'Azur according to the PPA. "In Nice, a ZFE [low emission zone] has been set up... on 4% of the territory and elected officials have said that it would not be carried out. Furthermore , it does not concern the 86,000 two-wheelers in circulation," argues the volunteer, citing studies estimating the number of annual deaths caused by air pollution in the Côte d'Azur capital at 500 (1).

The collective, which is also fighting against the expansion of Nice airport, also denounces the plan's failure to take into account ultra-fine particles or ozone, a pollutant that is harmful to the lungs, but is said to be "secondary" because it is formed from the combination of those emitted by traffic with the sun's rays; or the absence of pollution sensors on the Mathis road and the A8.

"The plan is also built on national regulatory thresholds, less stringent than those of the World Health Organization," laments Thierry Bitouzé. Facing him at the hearing was an empty bench, as the prefecture was not represented. "A PPA does not have to take secondary pollutants into account, nor WHO standards (...). It is also not within its jurisdiction to delineate ZFEs," the public rapporteur emphasized, among other things, arguing for the rejection of the request. When contacted, the prefecture has not, for the time being, responded to our interview request.

The administrative court will deliver its decision on June 4, 2025.

(1) ARS, Public Health France, Insee.