What the French call green algae, more exactly Ulva armoricana, commonly referred to as sea lettuce, was fingered last month as the probable cause of death of horse on a beach in Brittany.

Now sea lettuce is suspected as the possible cause of death of a person.

On June 22, a 48-year old truck driver transported several loads of sea lettuce to the Lantic area dump, more precisely to a compost site.

After shuttling between the seashore and the dump, on his third visit to the dump, something happened.

The driver was later found dead, next to his truck. At the time, the death was attributed to heart failure.

Voices have been growing in number and in volume to look into the cause of the driver's heart failure, particularly whether it was attributable to the noxious fumes that decaying sea lettuce produce.

The proliferation of sea lettuce results from identified activity, particularly intensive agriculture and livestock. Unlike global warming, a change in human behavior would influence the proliferation, probably halting or reversing it. Change would, of course, entail costs (just as sea lettuce does). To date, no one openly discusses what these costs might be and whether they should be imposed.