Lille (France) (AFP) – French authorities had been on Thursday investigating the deaths of 4 individuals who had been harvesting grapes within the famed Champagne area, as locals suspected they suffered sunstroke in unusually excessive outside temperatures.
Prosecutors within the cities of Reims and Chalons-en-Champagne mentioned two males died in current days whereas selecting grapes, one lady died at residence a number of days after feeling faint throughout her winery work, whereas a fourth died in hospital after falling from a straddle tractor with out exhibiting any bodily accidents from the autumn.
None of the deaths was being thought of suspicious and no autopsies ordered, prosecutors mentioned.
They declined to touch upon any potential hyperlink to excessive temperatures, reported at as much as 34 Celsius (93F) within the area on the finish of final week.
But winegrowers mentioned the warmth could be responsible.
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“Maybe it will turn out that the sun had something to do with this,” mentioned Maxime Toubart, head of the Champagne growers’ affiliation.
“I am very sad,” he informed AFP. “People don’t join the harvest to lose their lives.”
Some 120,000 individuals had been serving to with the two-week harvest yearly and “obviously you’re going to have some accidents”, he mentioned.
Every yr, “one or two people” died from coronary heart failure or aneurysms, he mentioned.
One threat issue was the shortage of bodily preparedness for what was a demanding job, he mentioned.
“More and people come here without being in the physical shape needed for outdoor work. Some young people don’t have breakfast, don’t hydrate, are on medication or working shirtless,” he mentioned.
Grapes for champagne are grown on 34 hectares in japanese France, the place over 16,000 growers produce over 300 million bottles of champagne every year.
The United States are the principle export marketplace for champagne, adopted by the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany.
(AFP)
Originally revealed on RFI