Pesticide used in the banana plantations of Martinique and Guadeloupe from 1972 to 1993, when it was banned, was chlordecone classified as a “possible carcinogen” by the World Health Organization (WHO) used in an unreasonable way? , far from any safety standard, having led to an explosion of prostate cancers? On Monday, French justice dismissed the case, ending an investigation that could answer this question. However, the two magistrates in charge of the case described the pollution of the West Indies with chlordecone as a “health scandal” and “environmental damage whose human, economic and social consequences affect and will affect for many years the daily life of the inhabitants” of Martinique and Guadeloupe, in their dismissal order. 20 minutes reconsiders this court decision and its consequences.
What happened on Monday regarding the chlordecone “scandal” in the West Indies?
In an order signed Monday and more than 300 pages long, two investigating judges from the public health and environment pole of the Paris judicial court put an end to a judicial investigation opened in 2008 on suspicions of massive poisoning of the Antilles in the chlordecone, a pesticide authorized in banana plantations until 1993. But, very rarely, the two judges concluded their order with five pages of explanations on the reasons for their dismissal. “Health scandal”, the use of chlordecone is an “environmental attack whose human, economic and social consequences affect and will affect for many years the daily life of the inhabitants” of Martinique and Guadeloupe, can we read there.
The investigation, according to them, established “the asocial behavior of some of the economic actors of the banana sector relayed and amplified by the imprudence, the negligence, the ignorance of the public authorities, the administrators and the politicians who authorized the use of chlordecone at a time when economic productivity took precedence over health and ecological concerns”.
Why did the magistrates dismiss the case?
The decision to dismiss the case is justified according to the two judges firstly by the difficulty of “reporting the criminal proof of the facts denounced”, “committed ten, fifteen or thirty years before the filing of complaints”, the first the having been in 2006. The magistrates also underline “the state of technical or scientific knowledge” at the beginning of the 1990s, which “did not allow” to establish “the certain causal link required by criminal law” between the pesticide and health damage.
“It is not possible to assert scientific advances” later because they are “post-facts” objects of the judicial information, further underline the judges. Also arguing about various obstacles related to the law, the magistrates attest that “the cause (of the plaintiffs) has been heard” and that they had the “concern” to obtain a “judicial truth”, but they note their impossibility to ” characterize a criminal offence”.
What’s wrong with chlordecone?
Chlordecone, a pesticide risky for human health, was used in the banana plantations of the French West Indies from 1972 to 1993 to fight against the banana weevil, an insect pest for these crops. This pesticide was spread under derogation, while the rest of the French territory had banned its use. Its use has led to pollution of soil, river water and the marine environment near the farms.
Thus, this toxic molecule was found in certain plant or animal foodstuffs, as well as in spring water. Many local foods, mainly root vegetables, fish and shellfish, eggs from private chicken coops were contaminated, especially in certain areas where banana plantations were present.
According to a report published on December 6 by the National Health Security Agency (ANSES), nearly 90% of the populations of Martinique and Guadeloupe are contaminated with chlordecone. Banned in the United States in the 1960s, classified as a “possible carcinogen” by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1979, the product is suspected of being the cause of an explosion of prostate cancers in West Indies, as revealed by the Inserm study “Karuprostate” (from Karukera, Caribbean name for Guadeloupe) in 2010. For the past year, these pathologies linked to exposure to chlordecone have been recognized as an occupational disease in France .
In 2012, the “Timoun” study on the impact of chlordecone on pregnancy and child development also revealed behavioral problems, loss of motor skills and “loss of IQ of 10 to 20 points “. The product also increases the risk of prematurity, according to an Inserm study made public in 2014. Following revelations of the consequences of the pesticide, in 2006, several Martinican and Guadeloupean associations filed a complaint for “poisoning”, “setting danger to the life of others” and “administration of a harmful substance”.
And now, what will happen?
This decision with high symbolic value was feared by elected officials and inhabitants of Martinique and Guadeloupe, who regularly denounced a risk of “denial of justice”. This dismissal is a “shame”, reacted the Confédération paysanne. Covertly, the magistrates’ dismissal order also tackled most of the civil parties, “long silent” in this investigation and whose “interest in the investigation only awoke” a few years ago. two years.
The two judges quite openly invite the victims of chlordecone to take advantage of “the causality now established” between the pesticide and the damage suffered by the population to seize “other authorities”. “It’s an announced scandal, so it’s not a huge surprise. What we know is that all the lawyers intend to continue the proceedings, that is to say to challenge this decision, ”assured Philippe Pierre-Charles, member of the Lyannaj pou Depolyé Matinik collective.
Several civil parties in this case have announced that they are appealing the dismissal of the investigating judges pronounced on Monday. Historical lawyer for the victims of chlordecone and environmentalist mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe), Me Harry Durimel told Francid Info his intention to appeal.
“A rule of law cannot say that there is a dismissal in the face of such a serious injustice”, also indicated the lawyer, “flabbergasted” because “it is through the press” that the Guadeloupe and Martinican associations have, according to him, learned of the dismissal. For the lawyer, “if the Court of Appeal does not agree with us, we will appeal in cassation. We are determined to go to the Court of Cassation and the European Court of Justice to obtain justice for us. »