France responsible for jogger’s toxic algae death

A civil court in Nantes ruled Tuesday that the French government bore partial responsibility for the 2016 death of Jean-Rene Auffray, a 50-year-old jogger who suffered rapid pulmonary oedema, which sees the lungs fill with liquid, after he inhaled high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide on a beach in western Brittany.

In a statement, the court said that it “holds the state liable for negligence due to its failure to implement European and national regulations designed to protect waters from agricultural pollution,” which is “the main cause of the proliferation of green algae in Brittany.”

“For the first time, a French court has recognized the link between a person’s death and the state’s negligence in these green algae cases,” said the family’s lawyer, Francois Lafforgue.

Court overturns prior ruling in finding state liable

Auffray’s family sued the French government for his sudden death but lost its case in 2022 when the presiding judge ruled there had not been enough evidence to directly link it to algae rotting on the Gouessant estuary near the city of Saint-Brieuc.

On Tuesday, the Nantes court ruled that the French state was 60% responsible for Auffray’s death but also noted that he had put himself at risk by jogging in the area.

Auffray’s widow will receive €277,343 ($321,750), while each of his three children will receive €15,000, and his brother €9,000.

Brittany, the nation’s pig farm

Brittany is a veritable agricultural powerhouse within France and is responsible for producing much of the country’s dairy (one-third), poultry (one-half) and pork (one-third).

France has invested heavily in farming in the region for decades but that intensity and the excessive use of nitrate fertilizers combined with runoff from pig farms has led to massive algae bloom that chokes the coastal areas of the peninsula each year.

Deadly concentrations of sulfides released from the rotting stuff regularly close beaches in the region and cost French taxpayers millions as tons of algae are trucked off each summer.

France’s top auditor reported in 2021 that an estimated 90% of Brittany’s algae bloom could be traced back to farmers, who have significantly increased their use of nitrogen fertilizers since the 1960s.