pesticides detected in the air of the center of La Rochelle

The samples were taken from October 9 to December 26, 2023. This is the first study to include samples in an urban area.

Results that worry local elected officials. Pesticides have been found in the air in the center of La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime), a stone’s throw from vast cereal plains, according to the results of a study published early on July 12 by the air quality observatory in Nouvelle-Aquitaine (Atmo). Carried out from October 9 to December 26, 2023, this study is the first to include samples taken in urban areas.

The data collected and analyzed show that the average weekly concentration of pesticides in the air could reach “3.9 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3) of air for herbicides” Place de Verdun, in the heart of the city, 1.9 km from the first agricultural plot. These rates are approximately three times higher in Montroy (13.2 ng/m3) and Saint-Christophe (11.8 ng/m3), the two other sampling sites located in rural areas, respectively 15 and 20 km east of La Rochelle.

This difference in level suggests “a transfer of molecules through the air from agricultural areas to this urban area”according to the study. This “proves scientifically that these products are very volatile and that they are found far from the area where they are spread”Marc Maigné, a doctor and elected official responsible for environmental health policy for the La Rochelle urban area, told AFP.

The main molecules found are prosulfocarb, mainly used in the fall as a herbicide on winter cereals, and pendimethalin, a broad-spectrum herbicide spread on cereals, rapeseed, corn, vines and orchards. This pesticide pollution has been a hot topic in the sector since the launch in 2018 of a health alert by the Poitiers hospital center to report the high number of patients – around fifty adults and several children – suffering from blood diseases and cancers in Saint-Rogatien, a town of 2,200 inhabitants near La Rochelle.

“It’s pollution that adds to other pollution, car traffic, fine particles, etc.”underlines Marc Maigné. Although he does not draw any parallel with the abnormally high local rate of pediatric cancers, because he suspects a cocktail effect, he believes that it “We need to increase the frequency of these studies and bring these figures up to the national level”.