A landmark court ruling in France has seen the country’s electricity grid operator, RTE, fined €390,000 for harm caused to livestock on a farm underneath one of its high voltage power lines.
The livestock, owned by a family in Latronche, near Bourges, suffered ulcers, bleeding, muscular paralysis and death. The family were eventually forced to move out of the farmhouse to a nearby caravan to escape their own worsening health problems which they blamed on the power line, including respiratory problems and deafness.
‘Even if this wasn’t proved scientifi cally and with certainty, the judge considered there was no other possibility,’ the court prosecutor told Reuters news agency. RTE plans to appeal the judgment.
