Reports Criticize French Government’s Delay In Banning Chlordecone in Its Territories

PARIS—Two French government reports released Aug. 24 said agriculture ministries in the 1980s and 1990s erred by continuing to authorize use of the insecticide chlordecone by banana growers in the country’s Caribbean island territories long after the substance was banned by the United States in 1976.

The French Ministry of Agriculture banned chlordecone use in mainland France in 1990. It did not ban its use in the French Antilles, where it was mainly used by banana growers in Guadeloupe and Martinique, until 1993.

Mostly marketed under the trade names Kepone and GC-1189, chlordecone has been identified as an endocrine disruptor ...