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Analysis of surface water reveals land pesticide contamination: an application for the determination of chlordecone-polluted areas in Guadeloupe, French West Indies

  • Environmental and human health issues related to long term contamination by chlordecone in the French West Indies
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Abstract

In Guadeloupe, the use between 1972 and 1993 of chlordecone, an organochlorine insecticide, has permanently contaminated the island’s soil, thus contaminating the food chain at its very beginning. There is today a strong societal requirement for an improved mapping of the contaminated zones. Given the extent of the areas to be covered, carrying out soil tests on each plot of the territory would be a long and expensive process. In this article, we explore a method of demarcating polluted areas. The approach adopted consists in carrying out, using surface water analyses, a hydrological delimitation that makes it possible to distinguish contaminated watersheds from uncontaminated ones. The selection of sampling points was based on the spatial analysis of the actual and potential contamination data existing at the beginning of the study. The approach was validated by soil analyses, after having compared the contamination data of the watersheds with the soil contamination data of the plots within them. The study thus made it possible to highlight new contaminated areas and also those at risk of contamination and to identify the plots to be targeted as a priority during future analysis campaigns by State services.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the French Government as well as the Guadeloupe Water Office which, as part of the National Chlordecone Action Plan III, co-funded this study, as well as the drafting of this article with the help of the European Union and the Guadeloupe Region (ERDF RIVAGE project). We also thank the Department of Food, Agriculture and Forestry (DAAF) of Guadeloupe for providing us with access to their data and for their logistical support; the La Drôme Departmental Laboratory (LDA 26) for having carried out all the analyses; and the technicians of the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) and the Centre for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development (CIRAD) for having carried out the sampling campaigns.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ASTRO Agrosystèmes Tropicaux, INRAE, 97170, Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France

    Romain Rochette & Patrick Andrieux

  2. CIRAD, UMR TETIS, F-97130 Capesterre-Belle-Eau, Guadeloupe, France

    Vincent Bonnal

  3. TETIS, Univ Montpellier, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, IRSTEA, Montpellier, France

    Vincent Bonnal

  4. LISAH, Univ Montpellier, INRAE, Institut Agro, IRD, Montpellier, France

    Patrick Andrieux

  5. CIRAD, UPR GECO, F-34398, Montpellier, France

    Philippe Cattan

  6. GECO, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, Montpellier, France

    Philippe Cattan

Authors
  1. Romain Rochette
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  2. Vincent Bonnal
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  3. Patrick Andrieux
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  4. Philippe Cattan
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Correspondence to Romain Rochette.

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Rochette, R., Bonnal, V., Andrieux, P. et al. Analysis of surface water reveals land pesticide contamination: an application for the determination of chlordecone-polluted areas in Guadeloupe, French West Indies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 41132–41142 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10718-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10718-y

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