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French 4G Antenna Suspected of Disturbing Cows Will be Shut Down

posted by janrinok on Friday June 17 2022, @03:08PM   
from the milking-it-for-the-compensation dept.

CrypticNerd writes:

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2022/06/08/4g-antenna-suspected-of-disturbing-herd-of-cows-in-haute-loire-to-be-shut-down_5986020_114.html

[...] "I can see from my tractor that they are all skin and bones. It's enough to make you cry." On the other side of the small road that winds along his property, a short distance from the town of Mazeyrat-d'Allier, in the Haute-Loire department, Frédéric Salgues can spot what he considers to be the cause of his cows' problems, less than 300 meters away: a cell phone tower commissioned by Orange on June 28, 2021.

[...] On May 23, the administrative court of Clermont-Ferrand ordered the 4G antenna's cessation of operation for a period of two months.

This measure, unprecedented in France, should become effective within three months. The objective is to carry out an expert assessment in order to "establish a potential causal link between the behavior of the cattle and this antenna." The administrative court highlights "a significant drop in the quality and quantity of milk produced, a serious disruption in the behavior of the herd and its voluntary denutrition and abnormally high deaths.

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Original Submission

• Ground currents? Ground currents? (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 17 2022, @08:35PM (3 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 17 2022, @08:35PM (#1254072)

  In ground carrying electric currents, I have seen stories of cows aligning themselves in a particular direction to minimize the differential voltage at their hooves. An unfortunate configuration in the tower power wiring could cause such an issue.

  Wonder if when they turned off the tower, they also disconnected it's connections to the ground. (Cut the power and signal lines.) If not, they may not have turned off the what is causing the issue. Seems like a relatively easy thing to measure with a meter and a couple of ground stakes.

  Perhaps there is a special market for 'Electric Milk'?

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• Re:Ground currents? Re:Ground currents? (Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Friday June 17 2022, @08:46PM (1 child)

  by RS3 (6367) on Friday June 17 2022, @08:46PM (#1254076)

  Excellent points. In fact, you can easily measure the current into the ground rod(s?) at the cell tower. Some may be buried and connected directly to the tower's structure, so you might not be able to measure them directly easily. But then you'd do like you said: drive some stakes (metal, preferably copper-clad rod) and measure. Really you could do 1 stake and measure from that to the tower's frame.

  Parent

  • Cows are sensitive to other stuff too (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @08:39PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18 2022, @08:39PM (#1254271)

    https://www.npr.org/2008/08/25/93956323/moo-north-cows-sense-earths-magnetism [npr.org]

    By analyzing the images, the team found that cows tend to face either magnetic north or south when grazing or resting.

    "Most of them actually align in a north-south direction," says Burda, and this held true regardless of where the sun was, or how the wind blew.

    While cellphone radiation isn't the same as a static magnetic field, I'm not going to assume there's no effect at all.

    Parent

• Re:Ground currents? (Score: 3, Informative) by gawdonblue on Saturday June 18 2022, @11:34PM

  by gawdonblue (412) on Saturday June 18 2022, @11:34PM (#1254294)

  Cows stand with their backsides toward the wind.

  Don't know if there are any studies to confirm it, but it's just something you know when you sail on inland waters.

  Parent