Chlordecone: Difference between revisions

'''Chlordecone''', better known in the United States under the brand name '''Kepone''', is an [[organochlorine compound]] and a colourless solid. It 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. {{doi|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/>

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 |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 on the substance in mainland France, the economically powerful banana planters lobbied intensively to obtain a waiver to keep using keponeKepone until 1993. They argued that no alternative pesticide was available, which has since been disputed. After 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 states that after the chemical1993 ban was imposed, the chemical was illegally imported to the islands under the name Curlone, most likelyand continued to be illegally imported and was used for many more 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>