Long term pollution of soils in French West Indies: how to manage chlordecone contamination? | Pollution durable des sols par la chlordécone aux Antilles : comment la gérer ?

Collaboration de : Claridge Clermont-Dauphin, Guillaume Humbert, Antoine Lafont, Julie Sansoulet (INRA Antilles-Guyane, UR ASTRO), François Laurent (INRA Toulouse, UMR Xénobiotiques), Maurice Mahieu, Harry Archimède (INRA Antilles-Guyane, UR Zootechniques), Philippe Cattan (Cirad Guadeloupe UR BPA), Raphaël Achard, Audrey Caron, Christian Chabrier (Cirad Martinique PRAM)

International audience

anglais. Chlordecone, an organochlorine insecticide, has been used in banana fields before 1993. Nowadays, it is still polluting water resources, food and aquatic biota. Agronomic research has been working very early to answer to how to manage this environmental and sanitary crisis: where are the polluted soils? Is the pollution a long term pollution? The molecule is not mobile. Risk maps, based on the past banana fields, resulted in the diffuse pollution of 1/5th of cultivated area in Guadeloupe and 2/5th in Martinique. Soils with a high content of organic matter are fixing chlordecone molecule. It has not been observed degradation in aerated soil conditions, thus natural soil leaching is the only way to decrease soil pollution which is highly persistent, from one to several centuries according to soil type. Efficient depollution is not operational at the moment. Thus, pollution has to be managed. To reduce population exposure and food contamination, producers need sustainable cropping systems because polluted soil stays productive and fertile. A decision tool is now available, it takes in account the soil pollution level of the field and potential crop contamination: some crops are highly contaminated (roots and tubers), others are chlordecone free (fruits, banana, pineapple, tomato).