More than 80% of adults in Guadeloupe and Martinique are contaminated with chlordecone and one in six exceeds the health risk threshold, a study by Public Health France (SpF) revealed on Tuesday June 23, which confirms the widespread persistence of this pesticide more than thirty years after its ban.
The proportion of adults with detectable chlordecone in their blood reached 81.3% in Guadeloupe and 85.5% in Martinique, according to the Kannari 2 study, carried out among some 2,300 people in the two territories and unveiled Tuesday in Fort-de-France, during a scientific conference on this pesticide.
Classified since 1979 as a possibly carcinogenic agent, chlordecone was used in the West Indies from 1972 and by exception until 1993 while it was banned in France from 1990. Widespread in banana plantations to fight against the weevil, it has permanently contaminated several thousand hectares of agricultural land, waterways and the marine environment.
Fishermen and farmers more exposed
More than thirty years after its ban, 14.3% of adults still exceed the toxicological reference value in Guadeloupe, a rate which reaches 18.7% in Martinique. This threshold marks the level above which “the risk of occurrence of health effects within the population cannot be excluded”.
Launched in 2024, the study updates the conclusions of a previous study carried out in 2013-2014, which established that more than nine out of ten West Indians were contaminated. Impregnation is decreasing slightly, but remains widespread, although with “strong disparities”, notes Public Health France.
Residents of contaminated areas show levels two to three times higher than others, with fishermen and farmers being the most exposed. The level of concentration also increases with age, “with a notable difference between those under 50 and those 50 or over”.
The slight general decline is explained in particular by the fact that certain foods, “even if they comply with the marketing, are not zero chlordecone,” explained Jacques Rosine, SpF regional delegate for the Antilles.
These results come after the confirmation on Monday, by the Paris Court of Appeal, of the dismissal of the criminal aspect of the scandal, after twenty years of proceedings. The lawyers for the civil parties, who denounced a “dark day”, announced an appeal to the Court of Cassation.
