French authorities were on Thursday investigating the deaths of four grape harvesters in the Champagne region, suspected of suffering sunstroke in unusually hot weather.
Prosecutors in the cities of Rheims and Châlons-en-Champagne said two men died in recent days while picking grapes, a woman died at home a few days after feeling faint during her vineyard work, while a fourth died in hospital after falling from a straddle tractor without showing any physical injuries from the fall.
None of the deaths was being considered suspicious and no autopsies had been ordered, prosecutors said.
They declined to comment on any possible link to high temperatures, reported at up to 34C (93F) in the region at the end of last week.
But winegrowers said the heat might be to blame. “Maybe it will turn out that the sun had something to do with this,” said Maxime Toubart, head of the Champagne growers’ association. “I am very sad. People don’t join the harvest to lose their lives.”
About 120,000 people were helping with the two-week annual harvest and “obviously you’re going to have some accidents”, he said. Every year, “one or two people” died from heart failure or aneurysms, he added.
One risk factor was the lack of physical preparedness for the demanding job, Toubart said. “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 said.
Grapes for champagne are grown on 34,000 hectares (84,000 acres) in eastern France, where more than 16,000 growers produce over 300m bottles of champagne each year.
The US is the main export market for champagne, followed by the UK, Japan and Germany.