prostate cancer caused by the pesticide is recognized as an occupational disease

A step forward in this “environmental scandal”. Prostate cancers linked to exposure to chlordecone, this pesticide widely used for decades in the West Indies, are now recognized as an occupational disease, according to a decree published on Wednesday, December 22 in the Official Journal. “The term ‘pesticides’ refers to products for agricultural use and products intended for the maintenance of green spaces (phytosanitary products or plant protection products) as well as biocides and veterinary antiparasitics, whether or not they are authorized at the time demand”, according to the decree which had been announced in the fall by the Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie. It opens to the farmers concerned, a fund created in 2020 and intended to compensate people with diseases linked to pesticides.

This measure is part of a series of actions carried out by the State in this extremely sensitive issue for years in the West Indies and described as an “environmental scandal” by Emmanuel Macron. Chlordecone was authorized between 1972 and 1993 in the banana plantations of the Antilles and infiltrated the soils for hundreds of years, polluting water and agricultural production, while its toxicity and its persistent power in the environment had been known since the 1960s. .

The government has not estimated how many people could be affected by this compensation, or the total amount. But all farmers or agricultural employees will be able to apply for this status on two conditions: that they have worked for at least ten years in contact with chlordecone, and that less than forty years have elapsed between their last exposure and the diagnosis of cancer of the prostate. More than 90% of the adult population in Guadeloupe and Martinique is currently contaminated with chlordecone, according to Public Health France.