Radio France and the newspaper Le Monde recently reported on a toxicological study conducted on 70 children aged 3 to 17 living in the agricultural and cereal-growing region of Aunis, France, which detected the presence of 14 hazardous substances in the study subjects’ urine and 45 in their hair.

The disproportionate number of cases of pediatric cancer in the region raised suspicions among the area’s residents, who, after years of calling for state action, took matters into their own hands and financed the tests in a University Hospital Center (UHC) certified for this type of studies.

The two French media outlets gained access to the study’s findings, which “detected 14 different molecules in the children’s urine and 45 in their hair. These include substances that have long been banned, but which are known to persist in the environment, such as PCP (Pentachlorophenol)¹, a proven carcinogenic,” according to Laurence Huc, research director at France’s National Food and Environmental Research Institute (Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement, or INRAE), who analyzed the results for the citizens’ association that commissioned the study.

Over 15 percent of the children in the study showed traces of the fungicide Folpet, classified by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) as a suspected human carcinogen, and the herbicide pendimethalin, classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a possible cancer causing substance and detected in 20 percent of the hair samples collected by the study.

Most surprisingly, the study also found molecules of banned pesticides, including several neonicotinoids, which have been banned since 2018. “If this molecule is present, it means the children were exposed to it in the preceding days,” Jean-Marc Bonmatin, a chemist and toxicologist specialized in neonicotinoids, said. “To me, this probably means that there is an illegal use of this pesticide, which is a powerful neurotoxicant,” he added.

The study’s findings were presented to the families at a public meeting. It remains to be seen what value the authorities will place on these “citizen” tests.

According to an expert with the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail, or ANSES), “it is difficult to interpret this type of information in terms of health, as there is unfortunately no threshold for pesticide residues in urine or hair. These data are nonetheless interesting and should be gathered, as they enable us to map out the exposure of populations to all these molecules”.

However, Avenir Santé Environnement, the citizens’ association that commissioned the study, says the state needs to take action on this issue. “We denounce the state’s responsibility in authorizing the use of certain products even though they are harmful,” Franck Ringet Girollet, president of the association, declared. The Poitiers University Hospital had already identified ten cases of pediatric cancer between 2008 and 2020. The association has detected five new cases since 2020 connected with banned toxic agrochemicals.

In light of these research findings, ARS (Agence Régionale de Santé) Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the affected area’s regional health agency, which is a state body, declared that it did not wish to “comment on civilian studies that are not scientifically proven”.

Avenir Santé Environnement recently organized a march demanding “a real agricultural transition” and “a plan to phase out synthetic pesticides”.