This ultra-toxic pesticide has been used for more than twenty years in banana plantations in Guadeloupe and Martinique. It has contaminated soils, rivers, livestock, fish, crustaceans, root vegetables… and the population itself.
The West Indians are at the heart of a fight to have the dangerousness of chlordecone recognized. Present in Martinique and Guadeloupe, this carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting insecticide present in the soil, will generate pollution for several centuries.
It has long been considered essential to the cultivation of bananas, one of the main economic sectors of the Antilles. In a long-term survey, Le Monde takes stock of this "miraculous" insecticide with catastrophic consequences. Appeared in 1972, it was sprayed on banana plantations in order to fight against the banana weevil, responsible for considerable damage.
Banned in France in 1990, but used until 1993 by derogation from the West Indies, it has since always been present in the soil and can be found in certain foodstuffs of plant or animal origin, and certain water catchments.
Soils polluted for hundreds of years
According to Le Monde, almost all Guadeloupeans (95%) and Martiniquans (92%) are contaminated with chlordecone, according to a study published in 2013 by Santé publique France. More serious, "the pesticide is also strongly suspected of increasing the risk of prostate cancer, the number of which in Martinique has earned it the world record, and by far, with 227,2 new cases per 100.000 men each year", explains the article. It is also suspected of negative effects on the development of babies. Chlordecone is eliminated by the body within a few weeks. But in the West Indies, impossible to escape it. It could be present in the soil for hundreds of years.
"Scientists must find a solution to eliminate the molecule," insisted Ary Chalus, president of the Guadeloupe region, in April 2018 during a meeting at the Minister of Overseas. "We must put the means on the depollution. When we hear that (pollution can last) 300 years, 500 years, it is unacceptable, "added Serge Letchimy, Martinican deputy. They seem to have been heard. The government announced a conference on the state of research on the subject, between October 16 and 19 in Martinique, a first.
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