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You are here: Home / Known effects / EMFs, agriculture and the environment / French legal actions concerning EMFs and farming

French legal actions concerning EMFs and farming

A legal case between M. Marcouyoux and RTE

Summary

A French court awarded damages of around 400,000 Euros against RTE, the French transmission company, to M. Marcouyoux, a farmer, for effects of a power line on this farm.  But the decision was overturned on appeal.

More detail

The following account is based on information from RTE and our own informal translation of the French court papers.

The initial decision

A French court, the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Tulle, in a judgement dated 28 October 2008, awarded damages to a farmer, M. Marcouyoux, against RTE (the French transmission company) for the effect of the power line on farming operations. 

The basis of the judgement was that the problems observed on the farm created a presumption of guilt, and that RTE had failed to produce evidence to counter this presumption.

There was some dispute about whether the problems observed, if they were caused by anything, were caused by EMFs or by stray voltages (stemming from the distribution system rather than the high-voltage power line). 

The first appeal

However, the Appeal Court, Cour d’Appel de Limoges, in a judgement dated 1 March 2010, overturned this decision.  It held that it was up to the farmer to produce evidence to prove that the effects were attributable to the power line, and that the farmer had failed to do so.  Further, the Appeal Court went on to consider the scientific evidence in its own right, and concluded it did not establish any effects on farming operations. 

The second appeal

Finally, the Cour de Cassation considered the matter in a judgement dated 18 May 2011, holding that the precautionary principle as incorporated in the French constitution does not overturn the normal burden of proof, and therefore upholding the Appeal Court decision in overturning the original decision.

See also:

  • More information on effects of EMFs on farming generally

  •  

     What is the Gibbs report?

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Navigation
  • What are EMFs
    • Terminology – an introduction
    • Electric fields
    • Magnetic fields
    • Units for measuring EMFs
    • Measuring and calculating EMFs
      • “EMF Commercial”
    • Adding fields together
    • Radiofrequencies
    • Screening EMFs
  • Sources
    • Overhead power lines
      • Fields from specific power lines
        • 400 kV
        • 400 kV – specific cases
        • 275 kV
        • 132 kV
        • 66 kV
        • 33 kV
        • 11 kV
        • 400 V/230 V
        • Replacing a 132 kV line with a 400 kV line
      • Summaries of fields from all power lines
      • Factors affecting the field from a power line
        • Voltage
        • Current
        • Clearance
        • Height above ground
        • Conductor bundle
        • Phasing
        • Balance between circuits
        • Balance within circuit
        • Ground resistivity
        • Two parallel lines
      • Calculating and measuring fields from power lines
        • Geometries of power lines
        • Raw data
        • On-line calculator
      • Fields from power lines – more detail on the physics
        • Field lines from a power line
        • The direction of the field from a power line
        • Power law variations in the field from a power line
      • Statistics of power line fields
    • Underground power cables
      • Different types of underground cable
      • Fields from cables in tunnels
      • Gas Insulated Lines (GIL)
      • Underground cables with multiple conductors
      • Effect of height on fields from underground cables
      • Screening fields from underground cables
    • Low-voltage distribution
      • UK distribution wiring
      • USA distribution wiring
    • House wiring
    • Substations
      • National Grid substations
        • Static Var Compensators
      • Sealing-end compounds
      • Distribution substations
      • Final distribution substations
        • Indoor substations
    • Transport
      • EMFs from electric trains (UK)
      • EMFs from cars
    • Appliances
    • Electricity meters
      • Smart meters
      • Traditional meters
    • Occupational exposures
      • Live-line work
      • Static Var Compensators
      • Occupational exposures on pylons
    • Field levels and exposures
      • Personal exposure
      • Other factors that vary with magnetic fields
      • Fields greater than 0.2 or 0.4 µT
    • Screening EMFs
      • Screening fields from underground cables
      • EMF Reduction Devices
  • Known effects
    • Induced currents and fields
    • Microshocks
      • Control of microshocks in the UK
      • Microshocks from bicycles
      • Bees and microshocks
    • EMFs and medical devices
      • Standards relating to pacemakers and other AIMDs
    • Effects of EMFs on equipment
  • Research
    • Types of research
    • Epidemiology
    • Animal and laboratory experiments
    • Mechanisms
    • Specific studies
      • UKCCS
      • CCRG
      • French Geocap study
      • CEGB cohort
      • Imperial College study
  • Current evidence on health
    • Childhood leukaemia
      • Survival from childhood leukaemia
      • Childhood leukaemia and Downs
      • Childhood leukaemia and night-time exposure
      • The “contact current” hypothesis
    • Other health effects
    • Scientific review bodies
      • WHO
      • IARC
    • Electric fields and ions
    • Comparing EMFs to other issues
  • Exposure limits for people
    • Limits in the UK
    • Limits in the EU
    • Limits in the USA
    • Limits in the rest of the world
    • Limits from specific organisations
      • ICNIRP 1998
      • ICNIRP 2010
      • NRPB 1993
      • NRPB 2004
      • EU 2004
      • EU 2013
  • Policy
    • UK policy
      • Power lines and property – UK
    • Compliance with exposure limits
    • European EMF policy
    • Precaution
    • SAGE
      • SAGE First Interim Assessment
        • Government response to SAGE First Interim Assessment
      • SAGE Second Interim Assessment
        • Government response to SAGE Second Interim Assessment
        • SAGE Second Interim Assessment – the full list of recommendations
  • Finding out more
    • EMF measurement and commercial services
    • Links
    • Literature
    • Contact us
  • Static fields
    • Static fields – the expert view