French farm workers poisoned by a cancer-causing pesticide will be able to claim compensation by the end of the year, a government minister said on Sunday.
French farm workers poisoned by a cancer-causing pesticide will be able to claim compensation by the end of the year, a government minister said on Sunday.
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For those interested in the story of the use of this pesticide:
Some banana planters claim to have ignored the toxicity of the persistent organochlorine pesticide used from 1968 to 1993 officially. Assertions that provoke perplexity, given the abundance of documents available on the subject.
The possibility of a dismissal in the judicial investigation on the chlordecone scandal seems highly probable. This decision, which is likely to be rendered by the investigating judges of the Paris judicial court in charge of the case, is perplexing. If this is the case, the judicial institution would exonerate the actors involved in the importation of the chlordecone-based pesticide from any responsibility.
A decision that would strengthen the position of banana planters who would never have known about the danger of the product. Thus, in a press release of January 25, 2021, the Union of the groups of producers of bananas (UGPBAN) recalls to have been brought civil party in this case in 1993. And to specify: “The producers of bananas have, until 1993, used phytosanitary products based on Chlordecone, within a legal framework set by the State.
Way of saying that no illegal act has been committed, since the import and the spreading of the pesticide have been authorized by several successive governments. The press release is eloquent in this respect: “It is certain that, if the producers of the time had known the consequences attached to the use of this molecule, they would not have employed it”.
A somewhat watered-down analysis of the history of the use of this persistent organochlorine product. Some facts deserve a reminder so that no one is unaware of them.
In particular, this saga begins in 1952. The patent for chlordecone was filed by chemists Everett Gilbert and Silvio Giolito. It was marketed from 1958 under the brand name Kepone in the United States. Laboratory tests carried out in 1963 revealed its toxicity in mice.
That same year, in June, the American firm United Fruits Company, which treats its banana plantations in Panama and Costa Rica with this product, highlights its harmfulness for the environment. A first alert.
It was introduced in 1966 in Martinique. A pesticide formula dosed at 5% of chlordecone is experimented in some plots under the control of the State services. Manufactured in Virginia, it effectively fights the banana weevil, but also the manioc ant. The results being promising, the banana growers want to buy it massively.
The pesticide is then used outside the legal framework in some banana plantations. On June 14, 1968, the Comité d’études des produits antiparasitaires à usage agricole – an organization dependent on the Ministry of Agriculture – rejected a request for authorization to import the product. The file presented by the company SOPHA of Fort-de-France is three pages long and is not signed.
On November 29, 1969, the Commission for the Study of the Use of Toxic Substances in Agriculture – abbreviated to the Commission for Toxic Substances or “Comtox” – issued an unfavorable opinion on the use of the pesticide sold under the brand name Kepone. It mentions the risks of contamination to the environment. These conclusions are identical to those of a study conducted in June 1963 in banana plantations treated with this product by the American firm United Fruits in Panama and Costa Rica.
On December 5, 1969, the registration of Kepone was refused to the company SEPPIC, based in Fort-de-France, by the Committee for the study of pest control products for agricultural use. Its file is too light and not signed, like the one of SOPHA the year before.
During the following 18 months, discussions were lively between cautious or sceptical scientists, the planters in a hurry and the government under strong pressure from the banana lobby. The Minister of Agriculture, Jacques Chirac, granted a provisional authorization of sale valid for one year, on February 2, 1972. It will be extended only in 1976, without having been renewed at the end of the first year.
During the strike of the banana plantation workers in January and February 1974 in Martinique, the platform of their demands mentions, among other things, the ban on pesticides. A demand ignored by the planters, despite the first signs of unrest among many workers.
In 1975, several workers of the Allied Chemical Company, which manufactures the pesticide in its plant in Hopewell, Virginia, developed neurological disorders. The company decided to stop the production of chlordecone. Especially that the discharge of surplus of the product in the James River, adjacent to the factory, causes the contamination of fish and shellfish.
The following year, the federal government of the United States prohibited the marketing of all products containing this toxic molecule. In 1977, the first soil and water studies in Martinique and Guadeloupe highlighted the polluting effects of the pesticide and its probable repercussions on human health.
The World Health Organization decided, in 1979, to classify the pesticide as a probable carcinogen. Nevertheless, the product continues to be manufactured in Brazil. From 1981, it is sold in France under the brand Curlone. On February 1, 1990, the government abolished the marketing authorization (MA) of chlordecone, after the decision of the European Commission to ban it.
A few months later, on June 5, the Minister of Agriculture Henri Nallet refused the request for a 5-year extension presented by the MP for Martinique Guy Lordinot. The minister considered the time allowed sufficient to gradually withdraw the product from the market during the following two years, until 1992.
In March 1992, his successor, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Louis Mermaz, signed a one-year extension of the exemption for the use of the pesticide. Then, in February 1993, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Jean-Pierre Soisson, authorized the Martinique cooperative of planters Sicabam to use available stocks of the pesticide.
These elements are public and known for some since 1969 and for others since 1977. Since 1968, the most powerful West Indian banana growers have always used chlordecone with full knowledge of the facts.
tl;dr: Banana industry in Martinique used dangerous pesticide for decades despite knowing its dangerosity, with strong support from local politicians. Now the banana industry will walk free while local politicans blame the state rather than their own lobbying campaigns.
Source: https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/martinique/chlordecone-bref-historique-d-un-pesticide-utilise-en-toute-connaissance-de-cause-976738.html
Translated with DeepL