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Chlordecone consumption estimated by sewage epidemiology approach for health policy assessment

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Abstract

Chlordecone is an organochlorine insecticide that was intensively used in the French West Indies to control the black weevil Cosmopolites sordidus in bananas. Its usage, however, resulted in the widespread pollution of the environment with heavy sanitary and social consequences, leading to population exposure mainly through food. Time-consuming and costly programs have been used to tackle this problem, and this study proposes to use the emerging sewage epidemiology approach to evaluate the current situation and the effect of such programs. The results determine the maximal value of chlordecone consumption, and considering the detection limit of the analytical protocol, the wastewater was found to have undetectable amounts of chlordecone. This value confirms the efficiency of the population protection strategy provided by French sanitary and environmental authorities. It also bolsters the usage of sewage epidemiology in pesticide assessment and relativizes the chlordecone risk compared to other chemicals of lesser concern.

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Abbreviations

ADI:

Admissible daily intake

BOD5 :

Biochemical oxygen demand over 5 days

CLD:

Chlordecone

CLD5BH:

5b-Hydrochlordecone

CLDOH:

Chlordecol

CLD-C13:

CLD isotope-labelled

DTR:

Drug target residue

FWI:

French West Indies

GC-MS/MS:

Gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometer

LD:

Limit of detection

NOAEL:

No observed adverse effect level

PE:

Population equivalent

THC:

Δ-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol

THC-COOH:

11-nor-Δ-9-Carboxytetrahydrocannabinol

WWTP:

Wastewater treatment plant

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Acknowledgements

The present study is part of the QUINQUEREME program funded by the Water Office of Martinique (Office de l’Eau), the Regional Health Agency of Martinique (Agence Régionale de Santé de Martinique), and Odyssi, which also supported the program through the kind involvement of its staff and site accompaniment.

The authors wish to thank the WWTP teams, Hervé Macarie, Marc W. Fariss, Yves Lévi and Sara Karolak for their support and review, Benoît Vittecoq and Anne-Lise Taïlame for their logistical support, and Victoria Grace (English Publications) for her English editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health and Environment Laboratory, UMR 8079 Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, 5 rue Jean Baptiste Clément, 92290, Chatenay-Malabry, France

    Damien A. Devault

  2. Division Laboratoires, BRGM 3 avenue Claude Guillemin, 45060, Orléans, cedex 2, France

    Laurence Amalric & Sébastien Bristeau

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  1. Damien A. Devault
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  2. Laurence Amalric
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  3. Sébastien Bristeau
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Correspondence to Damien A. Devault.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Devault, D.A., Amalric, L. & Bristeau, S. Chlordecone consumption estimated by sewage epidemiology approach for health policy assessment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 29633–29642 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2995-x

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