Articulations of poisoning: historicity, relationality, and contextuality of Chlordecone pollution in the French Antilles.

Abstract

Chlordecone, a highly persistent organochlorine insecticide, was widely applied to banana plantations in Martinique and Guadeloupe from 1972 until being banned in 1993. Decades later, its residues still permeate soil, waterways, food systems, and human bodies in the two islands. Classified as both a carcinogenic and an endocrine disruptor, the chemical compound has generated widespread protests, epidemiological debates, and political critique. Drawing on six months of non-consecutive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Martinique between 2017 and 2022, this article examines how people interpret and navigate the chemical's enduring effects. We develop the concept of 'articulations of poisoning' to describe the ways in which Chlordecone is rendered meaningful, not simply as a biomedical or ecological risk, but as a lived, historically sedimented, and politically contested experience. These articulations unfold along three interconnected dimensions (i.e. historicity, relationality, and contextuality) that shape how poisoning is perceived, embodied, and contested in everyday life. Through the voices of activists, farmers, medical professionals, institutional actors, and community members, we explore how poisoning becomes entangled with colonial legacies, political debates, and the everyday struggle for environmental justice in the French Antilles.