"The Chlordecone Crime" How did the French government poison the territory of Guadeloupe?

Despite its international prohibition, and for more than 20 years, the French government poisoned the territory of the island of Guadeloupe with the carcinogen chlordecone, which was used as an insecticide in the treatment of banana fields, in a scandal again Mubarraz with the escalation of protests against the passport on the island.

The French island of Guadeloupe is still living on a hot slate, with the intensification of protests that have rocked its streets for more than a week. The point that sparked the cup of anger was the mandatory imposition of a "health passport", while the cup was basically filled with "a complete absence of government care, problems of access to potable water, poisoned soil, and poor infrastructure," according to one of the island's unions.

Problems, foremost of which is the "Chlordecone issue", which has resurfaced with the Guadeloupe protest movement, where the protesters are demanding the French government to bear the costs of laboratory tests to fully detect this deadly substance and for all the island's residents.

This is with the continuing effect of the deadly Chlordecone among the Guadeloupeans, exposing one of the most heinous crimes of the systematic poisoning practiced by the French authorities against these populations, and its disregard for their public health, in return for their greed for the banana crops that come from there.

France poisoned Guadeloupe

Since 1972, the French government has allowed Guadeloupe banana farmers to use the deadly chlordecone to treat their cultivation. This highly toxic substance is used in agriculture as an insecticide to eliminate the moth that attacks banana bushes.

In 1979 the World Health Organization classified the substance as carcinogenic, and prohibited its use. However, this did not deter the French government from continuing to authorize its spraying in the fields of Guadeloupe. Rather, this continued until the borders of 1993, that is, after a French government decision banned its use in 1990, when the Minister of Agriculture at the time issued exceptional statements to the owners of farms in Guadeloupe, in complete disregard for the public health of the island’s inhabitants. and its environment.

While the damage it causes may last for many centuries, the chlordecone molecules do not decompose until 700 years have passed. The use of this pesticide caused significant pollution of the soil and water of Guadeloupe and its coasts and herds of livestock. In the year 2000, a water bottling plant on the island was closed due to the presence of traces of the toxic substance in its products, and five years later a parliamentary report documented the pollution of the Guadeloupean groundwater with levels of Chlordecone 100 times higher than the permissible.

For humans, chlordecone poisoning leads to multiple cancers and, in some cases, to infertility. The human body needs 165 days to get rid of this toxic substance, provided that it is not exposed to it again during that period. And 95% of the population in Guadeloupe contains this toxin in varying proportions.

This makes the island of Guadeloupe know record rates of prostate cancer, and its less polluted neighbor Martinique has the highest global incidence of this disease. According to the French Ministry of Health, Guadeloupe and Martinique have the highest fatality rates with cancers of the prostate, cervix and stomach.

On the other hand, President Emmanuel Macron promised in 2018 to classify prostate cancer on those islands as an “occupational disease”, but so far this promise has not been fulfilled on the ground, while civil society organizations in Guadeloupe and Martinique have been waging a legal battle since 2006 to hold the French government accountable for Crimes of "endangering the lives of others".