low exposure affects fertility over several generations

The West Indians are not about to stop suffering. Inserm has shown that exposure to chlordecone has transgenerational effects on sperm production in mice

In the 1970s, chlordecone began to be used heavily in the West Indies to kill banana weevil, a insect that destroyed crops, spearheading the local economy. The insecticide is clbadified as "possible carcinogen" since 1979 by the World Health Organization (WHO), but still allowed until September 1993 by François Mitterrand and his ministers of agriculture Louis Mermaz and Jean-Pierre Soisson. Results: Soils are contaminated for centuries, as are rivers, seashore, livestock, poultry, fish, crustaceans, and vegetables.

Impact of Poison on Third Generation

Researchers Inserm have just shown that the exposure of chlordecone pregnant mice leads to a reduction in the number of germinal stem cells (at the origin of spermatozoa) in their male offspring, an impairment of their differentiation and a decrease in the number of mature spermatozoa . These works, published in the journal Scientific Reports even evoke an impact of the poison on the third generation of contaminated mice.

Solid (pregnant) mice were exposed orally to a relatively low daily dose of chlordecone (100 μg per kg of body weight). The chosen exposure period, from the 6th to the 15th embryonic day, corresponds to a critical window for the transmission of epigenetic information to subsequent generations. "The entire germ line in the male is affected either quantitatively or qualitatively and after two generations," says Fatima Smagulova, a researcher at Inserm, scientific leader of this work. The significance of these results on the fertility of men living in the West Indies who have been exposed to chlordecone during their prenatal life can therefore only worry.

Prostate cancer

According to a recent survey by Public Health France, almost all Guadeloupe (95%) and Martinique (92%) are infected with chlordecone. The pesticide can cause severe neurological disorders – motricity, mood, speech and immediate memory disorders, anarchic movements of the eyeballs – and testicular disorders. A study conducted at the Pointe-à-Pitre Hospital Center by Dr. Pascal Blanchet, urologist, has also established a "formal link" between prostate cancer, which affects many men in Guadeloupe, and exposure to chlordecone

Poison also has negative effects on the cognitive and motor development of infants, and increases the risk of prematurity, as proven by Inserm researchers in 2014. To badess the impact of exposure In Chlordecone on the progress of pregnancy, a Franco-Belgian team has set up, in Guadeloupe, a large mother-child cohort called TIMOUN (child in Creole). More than 1000 women were included during their third trimester of pregnancy between 2005 and 2007, mainly at Pointe-à-Pitre / Abymes University Hospital Center and Bbade Terre Hospital Center. Exposure to chlordecone was estimated by its dosage in the maternal blood taken during delivery.

An increased risk of prematurity

Inserm's conclusion is clear: "maternal exposure to chlordecone has been found to be significantly badociated with a shorter duration of pregnancy and an increased risk of prematurity. , whatever the mode of entry to childbirth, spontaneous or induced. " The Institute adds that "these badociations could be explained by the hormonal, estrogenic and progestagenic properties of chlordecone."

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