A survey of 72 pesticides used in 12 municipalities in Alsace

Download Pesticides près de chez nous: quelle toxicité? (French only)

The survey consisted of listing the chronic effects on health of 89 pesticide substances used in 12 Alsace communes, according to 3 pesticide registers: the official European register, the Canadian SAgEpesticides register and the Pesticides Properties Database of the University of Herfortshire. The result is that official, regulatory, European information on the chronic health effects of pesticides, as presented to us on packaging labels, is seriously lacking. There is no trust to be had.

Over the years, we have seen a dribble of bans on pesticide substances classified as the most toxic (CMR), as if the other pesticide molecules, which are not currently in the spotlight, were acceptable (and not CMR or endocrine disrupters or neurotoxic…). The merit of my work lies in having gone beyond such a focus (typically on glyphosate) by showing that the risks are much more diffuse than we are led to believe.

Next, a look at the regulatory framework shows the failings and even the intellectual fraud behind the approval procedures.

The agrochemical sector, with their LD50s and other animal tortures, are guilty of complicity in cruelty in their objective, factual alliance with the mass production of meat and milk.

Finally, the brochure shows the ways out of pesticides, with the alternatives developed in particular by organic farming, which is a well-trodden path that needs much more support.

As far as the mobilisation of farmers at the start of 2024 is concerned, the pressure they are exerting to maintain the use of dangerous molecules is seriously discrediting their movement and tarnishing the credibility of their leaders, who clearly lack the discernment or good faith to distinguish between economic constraints and distress that are the result of regulations that can be changed, and damage and constraints that are due to physicochemical and biological mechanisms that cannot be changed. And yet many of their demands are perfectly legitimate and can be shared.

Learn more :

BASIC, Analyse de la création de valeur et des coûts cachés des pesticides de synthèse, 2021