Saturday - August 15, 2009

Le PU

Toxicity tests on Brittany’s foul-smelling seaweed

France has ordered toxicity tests to be carried out on the mounds of putrified seaweed on the country’s northern coast that have been blamed for the recent death of a horse, officials said Friday.

Potentially lethal fumes from the rotting weed that has washed up on shores in more than 80 communities across Brittany have worried local residents and threatened the region’s lucrative tourist industry.

The national institute for environmental threats will test levels of hydrogen sulphide above the mounds of seaweed, the environment ministry said. It will also check for any other toxic components.

Green groups accuse President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government of turning a blind eye to an “environmental cancer” caused by the algae and blame intensive farming for producing nitrates that feed the seaweed’s toxicity.

Veterinarian Vincent Petit lost consciousness and his horse collapsed and died when they slipped on a patch of rotting algae near the beach of Saint-Michel-en-Greve on July 28.

The horse died almost instantly and Petit was pulled to safety by a crew of workers who happened to be nearby. Petit has since threatened to sue local authorities for reckless endangerment, spreading alarm in a string of coastal communities in Brittany’s Cote d’Armor region.

Holidaymakers have been told to keep away from beaches in northern France covered in seaweed after doctors gave warning that it could give off lethal fumes when it rots.  A stretch of beach had to be closed after a horse rider lost consciousness as a result of the putrefying algae. His horse was killed. Local residents have also been treated in hospital. The incident was in Brittany, where green seaweed is spreading across the region’s beaches as nitrates pollute the water supply as a result of intensive agriculture.

Scientists say that as the seaweed — known locally as sea lettuce — decomposes, it forms an impermeable white crust under which hydrogen sulphide accumulates. When the crust is broken, the gas is released.
...
There was further dismal news for French tourist industry leaders when a beach in Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast was closed last week because of toxic seaweed — this time blamed on global warming.

In Marseilles, 13 beaches were shut at the weekend after heavy rainfall washed the contents of the city’s sewer into the sea.

It has washed up in massive quantities in Brittany, where thousands from the UK are currently on their summer break. As the algae rots it releases a noxious gas that can have the same effect as cyanide. Environmentalists have warned that the seaweed could soon spread to the UK coast.

And le aromatics aren’t just limited to the beaches. Fellow blogger and recent globe trotter Rachel Lucas paid a visit to Paris just last week. Along with the glorious architecture, the high tech modern pissoirs, the fashion, the food, and all the wonders of that city, she couldn’t help having an Eric Cartman reaction - “this whole city smells like ass”:

As much as I loved the city, as much as I long to go back there again and spend more time, I have to report that I have never smelled more sewage anywhere else in the world. Just saying. It surprises me that they don’t fix that problem, seeing as how they are so committed to being artistically and aesthetically superior to the rest of us, which they might be able to pull off if the city didn’t smell like a highway rest stop.

I feel bad for poor old smelly fwance.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/15/2009 at 03:26 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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