The preliminary conclusions of a French Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (COI) released in late November, 2019, have found that the state is “the first person responsible” for the Chlordecone pollution on the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
The COI (the likes of which we are very familiar with) was appointed by French President Emmanuel Macron following his 2018 visit to Martinique, where he had borne witness to “the environmental scandal” which he described as “the fruit of collective blindness.”
The commission investigated the use of the chlorinated pesticide Chlordecone in the banana industry and its subsequent effects on the populations and environments of Martinique and Guadeloupe, two French d’Outre-Mer, (DOMs),[Overseas Departments]. (SN editorial, Antillean Tragedy, 11/11/19).
“Undeniably, the state is the first responsible,” for having authorized the sale of this product, stated the rapporteur, MEP Justine Benin, in presenting the outline of the report to the Agence France-Presse (AFP). “…but “these responsibilities are shared with the economic actors first, but also the groups of planters and some elected officials who defended to the end the use of Chlordecone, they wrongly considered as a miracle product without the possibility of alternative.”
During its six months of hearings the commission found that the French state had consistently failed to respond to warnings about the environmental and health implications of Chlordecone use, as far back as 1969. (It was banned in the USA, in 1975). In 1991, the European Union had issued a directive calling on France to ban the use of Chlordecone in Martinique and Guadeloupe, yet two successive Agriculture ministers in Francois Mitterrand’s government chose to derogate on the directive.
Whilst hearing from testimony from four ministers, the commission also gathered statements and evidence from state administrations and services, health agencies, scientific experts, banana producers, former local elected officials, sellers of the pesticide, fishermen and farmers. Among the disturbing revelations were archives had disappeared, only 16 percent of the contaminated areas had been mapped, there was no dedicated plan to fight the pollution, and that considerable stocks of Chlordecone had been buried, (following its ban in 1993) in a construction site in Guadeloupe which now houses a high school.
“This environmental, health and economic drama therefore demands immediate reparation,” stated Martinique Deputy PS Serge Letchimy, who chaired the commission. The recommendations of the report included “a plan for the scale of land remediation supported by the State, compensation, the free soil analysis carried out within five years for a budget of around 25 million euros, the implementation in place of free screening for all vulnerable populations, and the traceability measures of all food products from formal and informal circuits in the next three years “.
Other recommendations include the priority of research on chlordecone, especially in the area of health, where questions remain about its carcinogenicity, and the possibilities of soil remediation, which for the time being appear nonexistent.
In terms of compensation for patients, the commission has recommended the creation of a fund for compensation of victims of plant protection products be included in the draft Social Security Finance Bill for 2020.
“The people of Guadeloupe and Martinique are waiting for the truth, demanding clear answers about what they have been living for years as an ecological, health and economic tragedy,” Benin lamented.
An estimated 95 percent of Guadeloupians and 92 percent of Martiniquais have traces of Chlordecone in their body tissues, according to a document published by the ministry of health in 2018. As we reflect on these appalling numbers we can only begin to wonder if the actions of the French government are too little, too late.
