Nestlé water scandal: UNSA Santé ‘calls for the resignation of the Director General of ARS Occitanie, who has been seriously implicated’.
In the wake of the Nestlé water scandal, UNSA Santé-Cohésion Sociale, the leading trade union organisation at the Ministry of Health, is calling for the resignation of the Director General of ARS Occitanie. The latter’s responsibility is being singled out.
The scandal, uncovered by Radio France’s investigative unit and Le Monde, concerns the management by the State and the health authorities of controls on the quality of water bottled by Nestlé-Waters, in particular at the Perrier plant in Vergèze (Gard), under the supervision of the Occitanie regional health authority.
The government is accused of bowing to political pressure, but also of concealing health risks and weakening public control. The Senate’s recent investigatory commission has accused the state services of changing the conclusions of the Agence Régionale de Santé (ARS). According to the Senate inquiry, the names of bacteria and pesticides were deleted from a report by the Occitanie Regional Health Agency on the quality of Perrier water from the Vergèze plant at Nestlé’s request.
The UNSA union condemns ‘a profound drift within the ARS, where the health and environment departments are being weakened by a concentration of powers, a confusion of roles and a gradual sidelining of inspectors’. Faced with this situation, the union is calling for ‘a national reorientation of the ARS, greater protection for inspectors and human resources tailored to the health and climate challenges’.
Public health cannot be sacrificed to private economic interests, so we call for immediate measures to restore public confidence,’ concludes the UNSA Federation for Health and Social Cohesion.
