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Pont-Saint-Esprit |
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| Saint Saturnin church and the medieval bridge over the Rhône River | |
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Pont-Saint-Esprit
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| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Region | Languedoc-Roussillon |
| Department | Gard |
| Arrondissement | Nîmes |
| Canton | Pont-Saint-Esprit |
| Mayor | Gilbert Baumet (2001–2008) |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 36–187 m (118–614 ft) (avg. 59 m/194 ft) |
| Land area1 | 18.49 km2 (7.14 sq mi) |
| Population2 | 10,046 (2008) |
| - Density | 543 /km2 (1,410 /sq mi) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 30202/ 30130 |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | |
Pont-Saint-Esprit (Occitan Lo Pònt Sant Esperit) is a commune in the Gard département in southern France. It is situated on the Rhône River and is the site of a historical crossing, hence its name. The Ardèche River flows into the Rhône, just to the north of the bridge.
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The residents are called Spiripontains.
| Year | 1793 | 1800 | 1806 | 1821 | 1831 | 1836 | 1841 | 1846 | 1851 | 1856 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 5766 | 4055 | 4331 | 4545 | 4853 | 4937 | 5239 | 5375 | 5538 | 5887 |
| Year | 1861 | 1866 | 1872 | 1876 | 1881 | 1886 | 1891 | 1896 | 1901 | 1906 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 5123 | 4694 | 4350 | 4826 | 4726 | 4962 | 5262 | 4289 | 4798 | 4906 |
| Year | 1911 | 1921 | 1926 | 1931 | 1936 | 1946 | 1954 | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 4685 | 5801 | 4409 | 4652 | 4411 | 4149 | 4925 | 5778 | 6951 | 6709 |
| Year | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 8067 | 9277 | 9265 | 10,046 |
Pont-Saint-Esprit is famous as the town of origin of Michel Bouvier, a cabinetmaker, who was the ancestor of John Vernou Bouvier III, father of Jacqueline Kennedy.
On 15 August 1951, an outbreak of poisoning, marked by acute psychotic episodes and various physical symptoms, occurred in Pont-Saint-Esprit. More than 250 people were involved, including 50 persons interned in asylums and 7 deaths.[1] The foodborne illness, which affected other parts of France but were the most serious in Pont-Saint-Esprit, were traced to "cursed bread" (pain maudit).
The causes of the outbreak have never been identified with certainty but several explanations have been proposed. The first hypothesis at the time was that the mass-poisoning was an outbreak of ergotism. Later investigations focused on mercury poisoning due to the use of Panogen or other fungicides used to treat grains and seeds.[2] As pointed out by Simon Cotton (Chemistry Department of Uppingham School), there are well-documented instances of mercury poisoning due to such products:
There was a serious epidemic in Iraq in 1956 and again in 1960, whilst use of seed wheat (which had been treated with a mixture of C2H5HgCl and C6H5HgOCOCH3) for food, caused the poisoning of about 100 people in West Pakistan in 1961. Another outbreak happened in Guatemala in 1965. Most serious was the disaster in Iraq in 1971–72, when according to official figures 459 died. Grain had been treated with methyl mercury compounds as a fungicide and should have been planted. Instead it was sold for milling and made into bread.[3]
Nevertheless the symptoms exhibited by victims in Pont-Saint-Esprit are not entirely consistent with this hypothesis. In 1982, a French researcher pointed to Aspergillus fumigatus as a potential culprit.[4] This mycotoxin is produced in grain silos.
In 2008, historian Steven Kaplan published Le Pain Maudit, an extensive historical account of the incident and its repercussions.[5] The book argues that the poisoning might have been caused by nitrogen trichloride used to artificially (and illegally) bleach flour.[5][6]
In his 2009 book, A Terrible Mistake, journalist Hank P. Albarelli Jr alleges that the CIA tested the use of LSD on the population of Pont-Saint-Esprit as part of its MKULTRA biological weapons program and that Frank Olson's involvement in and knowledge of the operation is linked to his suspicious death. Albarelli says he has found a top secret report issued in 1949 by the research director of the Edgewood Arsenal, where many US government LSD experiments were carried out, which states that the army should do everything possible to launch "field experiments" using the drug. Using Freedom of Information legislation, he also got hold of another CIA report from 1954. In it a representative from a Swiss chemical company, Sandoz Chemicals, which was close to Pont-Saint-Esprit and produced LSD is reported to have said, "The Pont-Saint-Esprit 'secret' is that it was not the bread at all... It was not grain ergot."[7] According to Albarelli's thesis, the Pont-Saint-Esprit incident was intended as a precursor to a similar experiment scheduled to take place in the New York City subway system.[8] Albarelli states that Sandoz Laboratories was covertly producing LSD for the CIA at the time and that Sandoz scientists falsely pointed the finger at ergot or mercury.[9]
Steven Kaplan has dismissed Albarelli's claims as conspiracy theory. Kaplan criticized the theory as inconsistent with both the event's timeline and the clinical manifestations of the poisoning, calling media coverage of Albarelli's book ethically dubious. Kaplan claimed that the CIA's interest in the incident was neither a surprise nor a secret, and that Project MKULTRA would have had little interest in conducting uncontrolled experiments.[10][11]
Kaplan's critics counter that uncontrolled experiments were the norm under the CIA's MKULTRA program.[12] [13][14][15]
On 23 August 2010, UK's BBC Radio 4 broadcast an investigation by journalist Mike Thompson in which residents of the town, Albarelli, and multiple academics, were all interviewed. Thompson's piece covered the victims' experiences, their treatment at the time, the similarities and differences between ergot and LSD, the feasibility of overseas CIA trials, documentary evidence that 'field trials' had been recommended and that Pont Saint Esprit operative Frank Olson had been mentioned in White House documents with instructions to "bury" the information. After becoming aware of Albarelli's investigation, an 87 year old resident volunteered information that she and a local doctor believed that ergot could not have been the cause. Their view was based upon the doctor's fingertip-only contact with the contaminant, which allegedly resulted in three days' difficulty in speaking. Since LSD is destroyed at baking temperatures, Albarelli posited that the LSD may have been added to the bread after baking.[16]
Pont-Saint-Esprit is twinned with: