Chlordecone: Difference between revisions

| IUPACName = decachloropentacyclo[5.3.0.0^2.6.0^3.9.0^4.8]decan-5-one<ref>[https://archive.istoday/20121223055440/http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/aeru/iupac/1293.htm IUPAC Agrochemical information.]</ref>

'''Chlordecone''', better known in the United States under the brand name '''Kepone''' in the United States, is an [[organochlorine compound]] and a colourless solid. This compoundIt is an obsolete [[insecticide]] related to [[Mirex]] and [[DDT]]. Its use was so disastrous that it is, now prohibited in the western world, but only after many thousands of tonnes had been produced and used.<ref name=Ullmann2>Robert L. Metcalf "Insect Control" in ''Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry'' Wiley-VCH, Wienheim, 2002. {{DOIdoi|10.1002/14356007.a14_263}}</ref> Chlordecone is a known [[persistent organic pollutant]] (POP) that was banned globally by the [[Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants]] in 2009.<ref name="COP4, 2009 Press release">[http://chm.pops.int/Convention/Pressrelease/COP4Geneva8May2009/tabid/542/ Press Release – COP4 – Geneva, 8 May 2009: Governments unite to step-up reduction on global DDT reliance and add nine new chemicals under international treaty], 2009.</ref>

== Toxicology Synthesis==

WorkersIt withis repeatedalso exposurethe suffermain severedegradation [[convulsions]] resulting from degradationproduct of the [[synaptic junctionsmirex]].<ref name=Ullmann2/>

In the U.S., chlordecone, commercialized under the brand name "Kepone", was produced by [[Allied Signal Company]] and LifeSciences Product Company in [[Hopewell, Virginia]]. The improper handling and dumping of the substance (including the waste materials generated in its manufacturing process) into the nearby [[James River (Virginia)|James River]] (U.S.) in the 1960s and 1970s drew national attention to its toxic effects on humans and wildlife. After two physicians, Dr. Yi-nan Chou and Dr. Robert S. Jackson of the Virginia Health Department, notified the Centers for Disease Control that employees of the company had been found to have toxic chemical poisoning, LifeSciences voluntarily closed its plant on July 4, 1975, and cleanup of the contamination began and a 100-mile section of the James River was closed to fishing while state health officials looked for other persons who might have been injured. <ref name=McAllister>"Two young doctors stopped the spread of Kepone poisoning", by Bill McAllister, L.A. Times-Washington Post Service, reprinted in ''Courier-Journal'' (Louisville KY), January 5, 1976, p. 1</ref> At least 29 people in the area were hospitalized as a result of their exposure to Kepone. <ref name=McAllister/>

The product is similarmade to DDT and isin a degradation product of [[MirexDiels-Alder]].<ref name=Ullmann2/>reaction Chlordeconeshared waswith notpesticides federallylike regulated[[chlordane]] until after the Hopewell disaster, in which 29 factory workers were hospitalized with various ailments, includingand [[neurologicalendosulfan]].<ref name=foster05Ullmann2/>Richard Foster, [https://richmondmagazine.com/news/kepone-disaster-pesticide/ Kepone: The 'Flour' Factory], ''Richmond Magazine'' (July 8, 2005).</ref> Chlordecone is cited amongst a handful of other noxious substances as the driver for [[Gerald Ford]]'s half-hearted approval in 1976 of the [[Toxic Substances Control Act]], which "remains one of the most controversial regulatory bills ever passed".<ref name="hanson07">{{cite journal |last1=Hanson |first1=David J. |title=Those Were The Days |journal=Chemical & Engineering News |date=15 January 2007 |volume=85 |issue=3 |url=https://cen.acs.org/articles/85/i3/Those-Days.html |publisher=American Chemical Society|doi=10.1021/cen-v085n003.p044 }}</ref>

==== French Antilles= ===

The French islands of [[Martinique]] and [[Guadeloupe]] are heavily contaminated with chlordecone,<ref>{{cite journal | author = Durimel A.|display-authors=etal | year = 2013 | title = pH dependence of chlordecone adsorption on activated carbons and role of adsorbent physico-chemical properties | journal = Chemical Engineering Journal | volume = 229 | pages = 239–349 | doi=10.1016/j.cej.2013.03.036}}</ref> following years of its massive and unrestricted use on banana plantations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wong |first1=Alfred |last2=Ribero |first2=Christine |title=Alternative Agricultural Cropping Options for Chlordecone-Polluted Martinique |journal=Études Caribéennes |date=26 March 2014 |issue=26 |doi=10.4000/etudescaribeennes.6710|doi-access=free }}{{open access}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title = Bodies in the System|journal =[[Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism|Small Axe]]|date = 1 November 2013|issn = 0799-0537|pages = 182–192|volume = 17|issue = 3(42)|doi = 10.1215/07990537-2378991|first = Vanessa|last = Agard-Jones|s2cid =145642259}}</ref> Despite a 1990 ban ofon the substance byin mainland France, the economically powerful banana planters lobbied intensively to obtain a derogationwaiver to usekeep keponeusing Kepone until 1993,. arguingThey argued that no alternative pesticide was available, which has since been disputed. FollowingAfter the 1993 ban, the banana planters were discreetly granted derogations to use their remaining stocks, and a 2005 report prepared by the French National Assembly statedstates that itafter seemedthe likely1993 thatban was imposed, the chemical, was illegally imported to the islands under the name Curlone, and continued to be illegally imported and used for many years.<ref name="rapport">{{Cite web |title=N° 2430 - Rapport d'information sur l'utilisation du chlordécone et des autres pesticides dans l'agriculture martiniquaise et guadeloupéenne (M. Philippe-Edmond Mariette, Président, et M. Joël Beaugendre, Rapporteur) |url=https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/12/rap-info/i2430.asp |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=www.assemblee-nationale.fr}}[https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/12/rap-info/i2430.asp Rapport d'information (...) sur l'utilisation du chlordécone et des autres pesticides dans l'agriculture martiniquaise et guadeloupéenne.]</ref> Since 2003, local authorities in the two islands have restricted the cultivation of various food crops because the [[soil contamination|soil is badly contaminated]] by chlordecone. A 2018 large-scale study by the French public health agency, ''Santé publique France'', shows that 95% of the inhabitants of Guadeloupe and 92% of those of Martinique are contaminated by the chemical.<ref>[https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2018/06/06/chlordecone-les-antilles-empoisonnees-pour-sept-siecles_5310192_3244.html Chlordécone : les Antilles empoisonnées pour des générations], Le Monde, 6 June 2018.</ref> Guadeloupe has one of the highest [[prostate cancer]] diagnosis rates in the world.<ref>{{cite news |title=France: Island Paradise With Contaminated Drinking Water |url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/episode/0,,5542822,00.html |work=European Journal |publisher=[[Deutsche Welle]] |date=26 May 2010 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527120102/http://www.dw-world.de/dw/episode/0,,5542822,00.html |archivedate=27 May 2010}}</ref>