2024-02-19
FORT-DE-FRANCE / BASSE TERRE – This investigation goes behind the scenes of a French state scandal, tracing a historical route from governmental actors who approved use of chlordecone, a dangerous chemical, in agriculture, to the realities of victims speaking out today. Their testimonies highlight how the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe face an environmental and sanitary disaster still ongoing.
Available on the market until 1993, chlordecone is a potential carcinogenic and the active ingredient of pesticides used in the French Antilles’ banana fields. The chemical was never used in continental France, only in its former colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe, now two of France’s overseas departments.
Despite being banned in the US and West Germany in the 1970s, the French State claims that it couldn't have known the dangers of this persistent molecule, essential to protect its share of the European banana market.
After spending months contacting sources and conducting research in the French national archives, reporters Juli Simond, Giada Santana, and Chris Knapp, joined by photographer Eddie Stok, spent five weeks on the ground in Martinique and Guadeloupe. There, they interviewed over fifty sources, including victims and their families, activists, past and present government officials, scientists and researchers, farmers, and industry captains.
The result is a series of articles in Spanish, Italian, French, and English that have been published or are forthcoming in spring 2024.
Photo: Eddie Stok
Supported
€47,210 allocated on 28/08/2023ID
ENV1/2023/276Grant
ONLINE
- Clordecona: cómo un pesticida prohibido sigue envenenando las Antillas francesas, El Pais, 19/02/2024
- Il volto della Francia dietro il disastro ambientale nelle Antille, IrpiMedia, 06/03/2024
- Pesticides : le chlordécone, ce scandale made in France, Factuel, 11/03/2024
- Le chlordécone : une crise sanitaire intergénérationnelle, Factuel, 13/03/2024
- The Paradise France Poisoned, Atmos.earth, 25/03/2024
COUNTRIES
- France
- Martinique
- Guadeloupe
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