Insecticides and herbicides banned in the European Union still causing poisoning in France, according to ANSES

Insecticides and herbicides banned in the European Union, sometimes for more than twenty years, are still "regularly a source of poisoning" in France, where they may have been stored or imported from countries that still authorize them, warned the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) on Monday, May 5.

ANSES analyzed the 599 exposures and poisonings linked to 150 plant protection products, which contained a total of 64 unapproved active substances, recorded by poison control centers in the territory between ^January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2022.

Three-quarters of these exposures were accidental, but the remaining quarter "were related to suicidal behavior," the agency said. Thus, of the 55 most serious poisonings, 15 were suicides. The areas most affected are overseas territories (Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon), Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France and Normandy.

The main products in question are insecticides (60%), herbicides (19%) and mole-killers (5%), sometimes kept in stock after their ban came into force, sometimes imported illegally, specifies ANSES in its health vigilance bulletin.

Half of these products, those based on dichlorvos (insecticide and acaricide), were purchased in France "from street vendors in markets, shops or on the Internet" , and a third, those based on strychnine (moleicide) or aldicarb (insecticide, acaricide, pesticide), were purchased while they were still authorized.

Nearly 80% of dichlorvos exposures involved Sniper 1000, an insecticide used in agriculture in Africa and illegally imported into France, where it is used against bedbugs and cockroaches. This product was the subject of a specific alert from ANSES in 2023 following a sharp increase in this misuse.

Similarly, in French Guiana, residents can still obtain paraquat (a herbicide not authorized since 2007) from Suriname, where it is sold "without legal restrictions," notes ANSES, but the number of exposures fell by 68% over the period from 2017 to 2022, compared to 2012-2016.

Aldicarb, which has not been approved in the European Union for more than sixteen years, remains a factor in cases that have led to around ten calls to poison control centres per year, particularly in Hauts-de-France, where stocks remain, as it has been widely used in potato and sugar beet cultivation.