Corrupted Soils: How a Pesticide Caused Irreversible Pollution

Sad news reached Martinique as on the 15th April 2013, over 100 fishermen stood at Fort de France in a call for aid against a contamination of pesticides that have been said to have existed in water for over thirty years.

The pesticide known as chlordecone, a persistent organochlorine pesticide, is used to combat banana weevil that infests banana plants, making them impossible for human consumption. What it is also combating however, is the environment that the banana trees are growing in.

The chemical sank into the soil, polluting and wrecking havoc with the wildlife and local flora, before finding its way to the sea; where it has made drinking water unsafe.

Fish and other edible grubs have become inedible, rendering the lives of fishermen utterly redundant, following an extensive ban on fishing. For the 70 families that depend on fishing as a means of livelihood, the chemical pollution has made it an unhappy one.

Not only is this an environmental crisis, but it is also an economical one.

Unfortunately, this is not all. According to France’s Institute of Health and Medical Research Chlordecone has been found to increase the risks of prostate cancer, as well as induce problems such as infertility. Furthermore, the doctors examined 1,000 women and their children that were exposed to the chemical, only to discover that the 153 of their toddlers had psycho-motor impairment, reduced visual memory and a lack of visual interest in new things.

“The problem is perhaps not on the same scale as Fukushima,” says Dr. Luc Multigner, an epidemiologist at the institute, “but it is comparable in its complexity. It isn’t the sort of crisis you can contain and solve, then move onto the next thing. No, it’s going to last.”

The upsetting message that a pesticide has affected a substantial number of lives has arrived at what most consider, a belated time. Paris does not deny responsibility for Martinique’s astounding tragedy, with several ministries already contributing through paid research, food stocks, schemes and publications. The future, at least for the time being, is not very certain.