A diary investigationl The World and by radio Franceinfo revealed this Saturday 12th a scandal relating to pesticides banned in France which were found in the bodies of children near La Rochelle, on the west coast of the country. The presence of toxic molecules from banned pesticides was discovered during analyzes carried out on 70 children in the agricultural region of Aunis, where the number of cases of childhood cancer has been multiplying.
French outlets report that 14 different molecules were found in the urine and 45 in the hair of each child tested. All showed traces of pesticides and some are particularly worrying. Phytalimide, for example, was detected in the urine of more than 15% of children: the molecule is the decomposition product of folpel, a fungicide classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic and possibly reprotoxic by the European Chemicals Agency.
Acetamipride and its metabolite (resulting from its decomposition in the body) were detected in the urine of twelve children (17%). Concentration levels were particularly high among younger childrenand even higher if they lived near fields, reports The World this Saturday.
In addition to acetamiprid, a dozen pesticides, including folpel and pendimethalin, were also found in air analyzes carried out by the air quality observatory, using the sensor installed in the commune of Montroy, in the heart of the Aunis agricultural area. When contacted, the regional health agency (ARS) for the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine declined to “comment on civilian studies that have not been scientifically proven”.
Determining the origin of childhood cancers has for years been the battle of the inhabitants of the Aunis Plain, a vast agricultural and cereal-growing area near La Rochelle, where an excessive risk of pediatric cancers was identified thanks to a study carried out by the General Cancer Registry of Poitou-Charentes, an Inserm laboratory at the University Hospital of Poitiers, as revealed in 2021 by the newspaper The World.
Since 2018, the French Cancer League has been financing a study conducted by the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and the Poitou-Charentes Cancer Registry on cancers in the region’s municipalities. According to our information, the number of cases increased from six in the first period studied (2008-2015) to ten between 2008 and 2020 (the last year for which data is available).
In 2021, a drinking water spring was closed in the municipality of Clavette after the discovery of high concentrations of chlortoluron, a herbicide widely used on cereals and suspected of being carcinogenic. In 2022, levels of the pesticide prosulfocarb never before recorded in France were measured in the air of the Aunis plain: the agglomeration of La Rochelle unsuccessfully requested the government to suspend this herbicide, which is widely used to treat winter cereals.
Compensation and contamination in the womb
On Wednesday, a former florist asked the Court of Appeal of Rennes (northwest) to recognize the death of her daughter, who died at the age of eleven, due to cancer linked to exposure to pesticides during pregnancy. Emmy Marivain died of leukemia on March 12, 2022. The Pesticide Victims Compensation Fund (FIVP) recognized “the causal link between Emmy’s pathology” and “exposure to pesticides during the prenatal period.”
However, when paying compensation to the parents, the FIVP did not take “at any time into consideration the damages suffered by Emmy”, complained the parents’ lawyer, François Lafforgue.
Emmy’s mother, Laure Marivain, was exposed from the age of 20 to numerous herbicides during her work, particularly when cleaning “the blue and yellow stains” from the pesticide-coated plants she received in large quantities. “Unfortunately, this contamination passes through the placenta during pregnancy and contaminates fetuses,” explained Mr. Lafforgue.
“I poisoned my daughter”Laure Marivain told the Court of Appeal, adding: “If someone had warned me, my daughter would still be here,” she lamented.
FIVP has offered compensation of 25,000 euros to each of her parents, who are also asking for compensation for the suffering Emmy suffered during her illness, and to her sister, brother and grandmother, all of whom were affected by her multiple admissions to hospital and her death.
“I kept the promise I made to her to fight until the end,” said Marivain, stating that she wanted to “do everything I could to change sides of the blame.”
FIVP lawyer Géraldine Brasier Porterie emphasized that the fund was “bound by law”, which prevented the requested compensation, in front of a room full of family supporters.
“We consider it very important that the general public, public authorities and elected representatives are informed about the situation of the florists and the families involved,” said Claire Bourasseau, head of the victims department at the Phyto-victims association.
Emmy is not the only child who has become sick from exposure to pesticides during pregnancy. According to its annual report, the FIVP recognized the causal link between the illnesses of four other children and prenatal exposure to pesticides.
(With agencies)
