Presidential candidate Anne Hidalgo, traveling to Guadeloupe, has promised full coverage by social security of all medical costs related to chlordecone poisoning.
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Read also“Impossible not to draw a parallel”: in the West Indies, distrust of the covid vaccine linked to the chlordecone scandal
Chlordecone, a pesticide banned in France in 1990 but which continued to be authorized in the banana fields of Martinique and Guadeloupe by ministerial derogation until 1993, caused significant and long-lasting pollution of the two islands.
More than 90% of the adult population in Guadeloupe and Martinique is contaminated by chlordecone, according to Public Health France, and the West Indian populations have one of the highest incidence rates of prostate cancer in the world.
"
The question of chlordecone is a real health scandal and the French State has taken far too long to recognize
it," said the candidate, visiting an association of farmers and agro-ecological farm in Vieux-habitants (west ).
President Emmanuel Macron had acknowledged this scandal during a trip to the West Indies in 2018. "
One of the immediate measures to be taken is the full coverage of all medical costs related to chlordecone
," she said.
Prostate cancers linked to exposure to chlordecone have only been recognized since December as an occupational disease.
Anne Hidalgo also felt that "
financial support from the State for soil decontamination
" was needed .
“
It will take depollution on land but also at sea
,” she insisted, since the pesticide has contaminated the rivers and the sea, and the entire food chain that results from it, leading to fishing bans in certain areas.
In the “
Assofwi
” farm, which also works on food self-sufficiency, she tasted the “
pitaya
” cherry (or “
cote cherry
”), walked among the maracuja, star fruits and sweet potatoes, and even dunked her lips in a glass of punch.
“
I am not used to thinking that elected officials, particularly at the level of the Presidency of the Republic, have a real impact on the activities of citizens
”, explained to AFP Frédéric Bourseau, president of Assofwi, "
but I know that Ms. Hidalgo carries ecological, social and health themes, and her values are interesting
".
“
His values and our values merge
,” he added.
Previously, the candidate visited in Pointe-à-Pitre the Memorial Act, the Caribbean center for expression and memory of the slave trade and slavery, inaugurated in 2015 by François Hollande.
It must hold a public meeting at the end of the day in Basse-Terre.
