Antillean tragedy

Martinique and Guadeloupe, the two French Caribbean islands in the Lesser Antilles archipelago, are havens for tourists. Over sixty percent of the 1.7 million visitors to the two French Departments d’Outre-Mer (DOMs), [Overseas Departments], in 2017, were from France, while the majority of the rest of the tourists arrived on the many cruise liners docking at the several ports on the two islands. Lured by the promise of sun, sea, sand and tropical paradise, little did these tourists realize that were actually bearing witness to a health and environmental tragedy of epic proportions.

Studies have found that extremely high percentages of the adult populations of the two islands now have traces of chlordecone in their blood. Chlordecone, a chlorinated pesticide similar to DDT, was sprayed on the islands’ banana crops for two decades, to eradicate root borers – weevils – which target banana plants. It is an endocrine disruptor, which can interfere with hormones and cause disease, and has been considered as “potentially carcinogenic” by the WHO.

The chemical was authorized for use in the DOMs in 1972, by the French Agriculture Minister, Jacques Chirac, who would later serve as France’s president. The pesticide was used continuously on the two islands until it was banned in 1993, despite the fact that as far back as 1972, it had been recognized as hazardous. In 1975, it was banned in the USA after several hundred workers were contaminated at a factory in Virginia, where it was manufactured under the name of kepone.

In 2013-2014 a study found that 95 percent of adults in Martinique had chlordecone in their blood, whilst the corresponding number in Guadeloupe was 93 percent. The news only gets worse. In 2018, Guadeloupe was found to have the highest prostate cancer rate (189 per 100,000) in the world, followed by Martinique (158 per 100,000). A 2010 scientific study had also linked chlordecone to premature births, which is now four times the national average.

Research conducted by Inserm, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, has found that the economic impact is at crisis level. Although the pesticide has not been used for over twenty-five years it still remains in the food chain, generating fears about locally grown produce. According to Professor Luc Multigner of Inserm, “One third of coastal waters are contaminated, all rivers are – fishing is banned there.” In a strange twist of fate, he pointed out that the chemical does not affect bananas.

Investigations have found that half of Martinique’s 24,000 hectares of agricultural land had some chlordecone contamination, and some 4,000 hectares were totally polluted.

Experts say that the chemical is very slow to break down in the environment, and the contamination can persist for centuries. It is estimated that over 300 tons of the chemical were sprayed on the two islands in the two decades.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Martinique last year and was briefed on the calamity. Macron described it as an “environmental scandal” and acknowledged that the state “must take responsibility.” The French parliament is holding a public enquiry and the French ministers of health, overseas territories, research and agriculture have all been questioned. The findings of the inquiry will be reported next month.

Whilst we empathise with our French Caribbean neighbours on the gravity of the tragedy they now face, one has to ask the question, how was this disaster allowed to reach these dimensions? The answer is quite simple and one we should take careful note of. Pressure from the Lobbyist. The

Lobbyists representing the banana growers were able to sustain the spraying of chlordecone.

As the oil and gas industries become a reality, the Lobbyist will appear on the local scene, representing his client’s best interests, which more often than not, as we can see quite clearly from the crises prevailing in Martinique and Guadeloupe, do not coincide with the best national interests.

As we worry about the effects of offshore drilling on the breeding grounds of our fishing industry, oil spills, damage to the continental shelf, and flooding of the coastal plain, we must strive to ensure that our national interests are always first and foremost.