A half-hearted victory for the victims of chlordecone. The Administrative Court of Paris found the State guilty of “wrongful negligence” in the file of chlordecone, this carcinogenic pesticide which contaminated nine tenths of the populations of Martinique and Guadeloupe according to Public Health France, Monday, June 27. Requests for compensation of the plaintiffs for prejudice of anxiety were however rejected.
In its decision, the court held that “State services committed culpable negligence” by allowing different chlordecone-containing insecticides to be sold under different names. Justice also criticizes having allowed these products to be marketed “beyond the time limits legally provided for in the event of withdrawal of approval” : chlordecone had been banned in France in 1990 but continued to be authorized in the banana fields of Martinique and Guadeloupe until 1993 thanks to ministerial derogations. Its use has caused significant and lasting pollution of the two islands, and the inhabitants have one of the highest incidence rates of prostate cancer in the world.
On the other hand, the administrative court refused to compensate the 1,240 plaintiffs, who claimed compensation for damage to anxiety, defined by the Council of State as “anxiety due to the high risk of developing a serious pathology, and therefore a reduced life expectancy”. According to the court, the petitioners “do not report any personal and detailed element to justify the prejudice of anxiety on which they claim”.
The lawyer for the 1,240 applicants, who intends to appeal, nevertheless considers this decision as a “decisive breakthrough”. “This can be used in the criminal case of chlordecone”explains the lawyer, who adds: “We have a court which tells us that the authorizations of the 70s were illegal and therefore are likely to involve the responsibility of the State, but also can call into question the responsibility of the distributors.”
In a statement, the government “take note” of the court’s decision, and highlights the “concrete actions” conducted by the state to “protect the health of populations” and “move towards “zero chlordecone in the diet”. He insists on the compensation process launched by the State, “at the individual level with the compensation of victims” by recognizing prostate cancer as an occupational disease, “and at the collective level through the measures of the Chlordecone IV plan”.
Another procedure is underway after a complaint for poisoning filed sixteen years ago, but the investigating judges in charge of the case had announced that they wanted to close the case without issuing an indictment in March 2021, which had triggered the indignation in the West Indies. Complaints against former ministers, filed by several associations, were declared inadmissible by the Court of Justice of the Republic in January.