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The Caribbean islands poisoned by a carcinogenic pesticide:
"First we were enslaved. Then we were poisoned." That's how many on Martinique see the history of their French Caribbean island that, to tourists, means sun, rum, and palm-fringed beaches. Slavery was abolished in 1848. But today the islanders are victims again - of a toxic pesticide called chlordecone that's poisoned the soil and water and been linked to unusually high rates of prostate cancer.
"They never told us it was dangerous," Ambroise Bertin says. "So people were working, because they wanted the money. We didn't have any instructions about what was, and wasn't, good. That's why a lot of people are poisoned." He's talking about chlordecone, a chemical in the form of a white powder that plantation workers were told to put under banana trees, to protect them from insects.
Ambroise did that job for many years. Later, he got prostate cancer, a disease that is commoner on Martinique and its sister French island of Guadeloupe than anywhere else in the world. And scientists blame chlordecone, a persistent organic pollutant related to DDT. It was authorised for use in the French West Indies long after its harmful effects became widely known.
"They used to tell us: don't eat or drink anything while you're putting it down," Ambroise, now 70, remembers. But that's the only clue he and other workers in Martinique's banana plantations in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s had about the possible danger. Few if any were told to wear gloves or masks. Now, many have suffered cancer and other illnesses.
Chlordecone is an endocrine disrupter, meaning it can affect hormonal systems.
One of the world's leading experts on the chemical, Prof Luc Multigner, of Rennes University in France, says epidemiological studies have shown increased risk of premature births and increased risk of adverse brain development in children at the exposure levels people in Martinique and Guadeloupe face through contaminated food consumption.
He also says: "There is enough toxicological and experimental data to conclude that chlordecone is carcinogenic."
Following a detailed study Prof Multigner and colleagues conducted on Guadeloupe in 2010, he estimates chlordecone is responsible for about 5-10% of prostate cancer cases in the French West Indies, amounting to between 50 to 100 new cases per year, out of a population of 800,000.
[n.b. Emphasis retained from source article]
(Score: 4, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Friday November 20 2020, @09:35PM (5 children)
But I have been informed repeatedly that all regulation is bad so this is clearly Fake News.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @09:55PM
Runaway1956 sub. Could it be racist?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @10:22PM (3 children)
Yeah, it's fake news alright. Let's see if I can help your tiny brain:
"First we were enslaved. Then we were poisoned." (OMG!?!?!?!)
Slavery was abolished in 1848. But today the islanders are victims again (OHFUCKNOSLAVERY!?!?! POIZONING!?!?!)
"They never told us it was dangerous," Ambroise Bertin says (DANGEROUS!!!!)
"That's why a lot of people are poisoned." (MOAR POISON!!!)
persistent organic pollutant related to DDT (OMFGDDDDT! WE KNOW DDT IS TEH EVIL!)
Ambroise, now 70
...wait....poisoned dude lived a long life and made it to 70 after getting prostate cancer?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @11:31PM
Don't question it, just skip to the part that says how much Whitey has to pay.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2020, @12:19AM (1 child)
Sounds like Republicans need to be rounded up and put in forced labor camps. Probably the only way gor the concept of slavery to actually penetrate their brainwashing.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2020, @01:26AM
Republicans have no problem with the concept of forced labor camps, as long as it's liberals who are put in them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @10:00PM (3 children)
First they were enslaved, then they got cancer from insecticides. But there is 100+ years in between, which I presume must have been not too bad then.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday November 20 2020, @10:11PM
like the US.. once divided by slavery, now divided by almost everything else.. doesn't have much nuance, but still true - and this was talking about the local's perception of events - ie, feelings and attitude.
on the other hand, the stats suggest it is a better place to live than many other parts of the world:
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/profiles/Martinique [nationmaster.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday November 20 2020, @10:12PM
It's true.
Aren't they just so cute when they're metastizing? Treasure those moments!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @10:13PM
100+ years of non stop insect bites...
(Score: 4, Informative) by Hartree on Saturday November 21 2020, @01:19AM
Kepone.
That's a name us teenage news junkies of the mid 1970s will remember. The governor of Virginia banned fishing on the James River in the mid 70s due to large amounts of it being released into the river by the manufacturer.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2020, @03:32AM
That's what the City of Yakima, WA, refers to as 'Vitamin C'. They keep saying it's good for us.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 22 2020, @07:36AM
why does this whole paragraph need to be bold?
WHY NOT MAKE IT ALL CAPS INSTEAD
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2020, @10:11AM (1 child)
Most of the entire world has been self poisoning with various things. In the US we had DDT, asbestos, black lung, cigarettes, and all other sorts of fun stuff that was supposed to be totally safe.
So this article is little more than 'Some place that some people enjoy visiting now a days had lots of slaves 200 years ago.' Durrrr.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2020, @02:44PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2020, @10:31PM
A thing to consider, most of the bananas consumed in the developed world have been treated with nematicides, as people, for some reason, don't appreciate the added wriggly bonus protein that are banana worms.
Fun fact, I've even come across organically grown bananas that were doused in the stuff on entry into the country by order of the biosecurity wallahs, the only reason I found this out was the nice official ink stamp stating this on the wooden 'organic banana' boxes I'd persuaded a local shop to part with a number of years ago when I was scrounging for thin wood for a project.
Oh, how I laughed...
(Still, on a brighter note, I do remember looking up the nematicide used in a pharmacology, happily, it was listed there as a vermifuge used occasionally in humans..)