In Brussels and the French Caribbean, pesticides linger on stubbornly

In late June, after 20 years of legal proceedings, the Paris Court of Appeal threw out a lawsuit in the chlordecone health scandal. 

The case dates back to the last century and concerns a toxic pesticide used in banana plantations in the French Antilles between 1972 and 1993. The molecule in question was banned in mainland France in 1990. 

Starting in 2006, NGOs in Martinique and Guadeloupe began filing complaints against the French state (and persons unknown) on the grounds of poisoning by harmful substances.

S-metolachlor is a highly mobile compound whose metabolites (residues resulting from its breakdown) tend to migrate into watercourses and groundwater. Regarded as a potential endocrine disruptor and a carcinogen, S-metolachlor has been banned in the EU since 2024.

Behind the anger lies the revelation of a public-health crisis of major proportions. According to France's National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), more than 90 percent of the adult population in Guadeloupe and Martinique is believed to be contaminated with chlordecone, a carcinogen that can remain in the soil for up to 600 years.

France's failure to act has sparked outrage. The French state has refused to offer compensation for its role in the scandal, despite acknowledging its liability through a law enacted on 12 June 2026. “Hundreds of people in Martinique – men, women and children – are suffering and dying as a result of serious illnesses caused by the spraying of toxic products that workers were forced to apply”, protested the Collective of Agricultural Workers Poisoned by Pesticides in a press release published in response to the decision to dismiss the case.

“The excuse that no scientific links have been established between the spraying and the illnesses does not change the fact that the links are real”, argues the group. It also criticises the government for failing to fund research into the health impacts of chlordecone. “We will continue to fight to ensure that justice is done and that those responsible for the chlordecone poisoning are compelled to compensate the victims and to decontaminate our country’s land and water.”

Pesticides: a French addiction

With agricultural output worth over €88 billion in 2024, France remains one of Europe's breadbaskets. This has given the agri-food sector significant influence in the country’s public policies. There is constant lobbying in favour of pesticide use, which is argued to be essential to ensuring the sector’s competitiveness and French food sovereignty.

This fondness for pesticides is confirmed by a survey conducted by Deutsche Welle (a partner of Voxeurop within the European Data Journalism Network). DW analysed how the use, sales and impact of pesticides changed before and after the EU abandoned its goal to halve its use of agricultural pesticides by 2030.

In 2024, France’s pesticide sales were among the highest when compared with the average for the years 2015–2017. However, the increase was modest (+0.2 percent) and remains below that of other countries, notably Bulgaria (+26 percent), Austria (+23 percent), Latvia (+15.4 percent) and Estonia (+15.5 percent). 2024 was the first year since 2021 in which pesticide sales in Europe rose. Based on DW's analysis, the trend had been downwards in 2022 and 2023, largely due to ambitious targets set by the EU. Ana Muñoz Padrós, the journalist who conducted the investigation for DW, explains: “While 14% lower than in 2015, overall 2024 pesticide sales were 8% higher than the year before, when the mandatory reduction target was still under consideration.”

Julien Fosse is a biologist, general inspector of veterinary public health and a lecturer at France’s Centre for Training in Environment and Society (CERES). In his view, the use of pesticides must be seen in context, namely that of the production system on which farmers directly depend. “In most cases, farmers are members of cooperatives, which sell pesticides”, he explains. “Farmers are therefore trapped in a socio-economic system that depends on pesticides. In arable farming, they have faced difficult economic conditions for the past three to four years, and particularly right now, they are taking far fewer risks from a technical perspective by continuing to use pesticides.” The use of plant-protection molecules helps to stabilise production levels, which in turn can reassure banks when it comes to securing loans.

Data from the Ministry for Ecological Transition’s Data and Statistical Studies Service (SDES) provides a record of herbicide sales in France. In 2018, sales stood at around 34,389 tonnes, an increase compared with previous years. There followed a rapid and historic drop in 2019 (22,378 tonnes). The explanation lies partly in the arrival of laws aimed at reducing the use of pesticides.

In the case of glyphosate, the increase in 2023 (6,758 tonnes, compared with 5,862 in 2022) can be partly explained by the EU's green light: the Commission re-approved the chemical that year, for a period of ten years. In 2023, the most recent year for which the SDES has data, total sales of herbicides stood at 29,940 tonnes.

Prosulfocarb is also the focus of suspicion. This herbicide, which is very popular in France, is highly volatile and has been found in crops neighbouring the areas where it is applied, including in private vegetable gardens. Its potential danger has not been ruled out.

The issue of pesticides becomes particularly pressing in the case of those most harmful to the environment and human health. Despite a drop in usage, these are far from disappearing. As the DW investigation put it: “The decline over the 2014-2024 decade was lower for a subgroup of highly hazardous pesticides, known for their potentially harmful effect on people and the environment. ”

Muñoz Padrós notes that sales of these hazardous substances rose by 27 percent overall in 2024 compared with 2023, largely due to increased sales in Spain, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia. “Among these chemicals is glyphosate, a controversial pesticide that has been linked to cancer risk and miscarriage. While the EU says the use of hazardous pesticides has decreased, glyphosate sales rose more than 44% between 2015 and 2024.”

The EU’s decision to re-approve glyphosate despite considerable doubts as to its safety has sparked widespread outrage. Between 2024 and 2025, the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), an international network of NGOs campaigning against pesticides, brought a case before the EU Court of Justice to challenge the Commission’s reauthorisation. PAN believes that the decision did not take sufficient account of the scientific evidence. The court’s ruling is pending.

The worry about persistent residues

A characteristic feature of pesticides is their persistence. Once applied, these compounds do not just disappear. They can seep into every corner of our environment.

In May 2026, a study was carried out by the NGO Foodwatch on around sixty everyday consumer products sold in France, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. It revealed that 49 of them contained pesticide residues. The analysis identified 54 different residues, 27 of which are not authorised at European level.

In early 2026, Atmo France, which brings together air-quality watchdogs, launched an interactive map to visualise the presence of pesticides in the air. Atmo's declared aim was to alert the authorities and the public to an issue that is often overlooked. The findings show that the presence of pesticides in the air is widespread right across France. Of the 72 active substances tested for in 2023, on average one in three was detectable and one in eight was quantifiable. Among these are several substances singled out for their toxicity or volatility – of which some are outright banned.

One example is lindane. In France, this insecticide has been banned in agriculture since 1998. However, the molecule is particularly persistent and is still found today in ambient air and soil. According to Atmo France, lindane was detected in 61 percent of air samples taken in France during the period 2022-23.

S-metolachlor and prosulfocarb, two of the substances mentioned above, are also among those most frequently detected by Atmo France.

Deutsche Welle also looked at the continuing presence of pesticides in Europe's rivers. Of the 20 countries for which DW has data, only two reported that their rivers remained within the applicable recommended limits in 2023. Conversely, 13 countries report an increase in pesticide contamination of rivers beyond the recommended thresholds. Among them is France (where 35 percent of rivers are contaminated).

At European level, the trend does not seem set to reverse. “Since [the vote that led to the scrapping of European limits], the European Commission's focus has shifted from reducing pesticides to reducing bureaucratic hurdles for companies, for example by cutting administrative costs. In late 2025, they put a new proposal on the table that would entail automatically approving most pesticides without reevaluating their safety after their initial approval period.”

Regarding chlordecone, the 12 June law recognising the state's liability should enable compensation to be paid to the victims. The limited level of that compensation has drawn criticism. 

In the French Caribbean, exposure to chlordecone continues to claim lives. The legacy of France’s “chemical colonialism” still permeates the soil, people’s bodies, and their lives.

🤝 Catherine André contributed to this article, which is published in collaboration with the European Data Journalism Network as part of the ChatEurope project, under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. It draws on the findings of an investigation published by Deutsche Welle, some of whose data has been reused. The original DW article was written as part of the same project and is available under a similar licence.