Banana plantations near Capesterre-Belle-Eau in Guadeloupe. Image by Mathilde Augustin. 2024.
For more than 20 years, a toxic pesticide blanketed the banana fields of Guadeloupe and Martinique, two French territories in the Caribbean. Today, plantation workers and local communities are left to grapple with the lasting scars of exposure to the toxin.
France permitted the use of chlordecone in Guadeloupe and Martinique for decades after other countries had banned it. In 1993, 14 years after the World Health Organization classified it as a carcinogen, France finally followed suit.
In Martinique and Guadeloupe, chlordecone seeped into the very fabric of life, contaminating soil and water for 600 years. Today, local communities remain exposed through locally grown foods, with more than 90 percent of the population showing traces of chlordecone in their blood. The islands report some of the world’s highest rates of prostate cancers.
Today, advocates for plantation workers and local communities seek to hold the French government accountable for allowing banana producers to use chlordecone. Several lawsuits have demanded reparations, with some progress toward justice.
In this project, Reporting Fellow Mathilde Augustin examines the ongoing impact of chlordecone poisoning on the people of Guadeloupe and Martinique—from challenges in growing safe and affordable food and accessing clean water to the broader health crisis facing these communities.