For Sabine Grataloup, this is “a first”. His son Théo, aged 16 and born with serious malformations of the larynx and esophagus, will receive more than 1,000 euros gross per month. The Pesticide Victims Compensation Fund has just recognized that the origin of his disability was linked to his mother’s exposure to glyphosate during her pregnancy.
Today, the boy, who has undergone 54 surgical procedures, “manages to eat through the mouth, breathe through a tracheotomy and speak through the esophagus,” explains Sabine Grataloup. And added: “At the global level, there have been court cases won in the United States in cancer cases, but for malformations, to my knowledge, we are the first” to obtain such official recognition.
A complaint filed in 2017
As in another file accepted in 2022, “there is recognition of the link between the child’s pathology and the mother’s exposure to pesticides, but the nature of the pesticide is not notified”, specifies at the AFP Christine Dechesne-Ceard, who manages the compensation fund managed by the MSA (Mutualité sociale agricole).
However, Sabine Grataloup has no doubt: she worked in an equestrian center and rarely used pesticides, and only glyphosate, to weed her quarry during the summer.
The family, who lives in Isère, initially did not wish to communicate this information for fear of facing a new hostile campaign on social networks, as was the case after filing a complaint against glyphosate manufacturers in 2017. (a procedure still in progress).
A crucial vote on Friday
But the mother changed her mind, increasing her interventions in the media in the face of the possibility of seeing the authorization of glyphosate renewed for ten years in the European Union, which will be submitted to a vote of the 27 on Friday. share this victory with other victims and with member states so that they can make an informed decision,” emphasizes Sabine Grataloup.
“This is an issue that has been the subject of a lot of battles, lobbying and manipulation, here we have a scientific basis,” she continues. A commission of experts selected for their competence and independence considered that there was a sufficient level of certainty to trigger compensation. »
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in several herbicides including Monsanto’s Roundup, was classified in 2015 as a “probable carcinogen” for humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization.