• Sensors will be installed to measure the level of hydrogen sulphide in the Breton bays invaded by green algae.

  • The device has already been tested for a year in the bay of Saint-Brieuc.

  • Collected by the Air Breizh association, the data should be communicated to the general public every week.

The device has already been tested for a year in the bay of Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d'Armor) where green algae proliferate.

In the coming weeks, hydrogen sulphide (H2S) sensors will be installed in the seven other Breton bays affected by the phenomenon, according to

Le Télégramme

.

These sensors will measure air quality and determine concentration levels of H2S, the toxic gas released by decaying green algae.

It is the Air Breizh association which will be responsible for carrying out the measurements and collecting the data which will be communicated to the general public each week.

The elected officials of the municipalities concerned should in fact “have an alert system which will allow them to be warned when the maximum acceptable threshold is almost reached”, specifies the daily.

“The fight has paid off”, according to Halte aux tides vertes

In a press release, the Halte aux tides vertes association welcomes this decision, taking care to "specify what is the origin of this initiative".

“This is not a sudden spontaneous desire on the part of the prefecture or Saint-Brieuc Armor Agglomeration to practice the transparency that we have demanded so much, she says.

The measures announced are only the declination of the recommendations / injunctions made by the High Council for Public Health (HCSP) in its report dated December 21, 2021.

"Relieved" to note that its fight "has borne fruit", the association nevertheless considers "indefensible" the fact that "the measures are not accessible to the public in real time, as recommended by the HCSP, even though Air Breizh publishes daily information on the other pollutants it measures”.

During the campaign carried out last year, the health threshold of 150 micrograms per cubic meter defined by the World Health Organization with regard to hydrogen sulphide had been exceeded twice on June 29 and 30 in the square of Hospitality in Hillion with 201 and 153 micrograms per cubic meter respectively.

“On this same site, from May 4 to July 15, the average of the readings over this period is 20.4 micrograms per cubic meter.

And no overruns have been noted since, ”indicated the Regional Health Agency at the time.

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  • Planet

  • Pollution

  • Algae

  • green algae

  • Brittany

  • Environment

  • Beach