Paris (AFP)
The controversial SDHI fungicides, widely used in agriculture, have an effect on bees, earthworms and humans, according to a new study by scientists, who demand the cessation of their authorization in the name of the precautionary principle.
SDHIs (Succinate Dehydrogenase Inhibitors) are used to destroy molds that develop on cereals or fruits, blocking a key stage of mushroom respiration. They are also used on the lawns of sports fields or golf courses.
But in a study published Thursday in the American journal Plos-One, a team of French researchers highlights that the respiratory process of human cells, bees and earthworms is also affected in culture by these SDHI.
These researchers had already launched a call in April 2018 warning against the SDHI, but this study "provides data and demonstrates that these products have no specificity", affecting organisms beyond the only fungi targeted, said to AFP Pierre Rustin, research director emeritus at the CNRS and first author of the study.
The study - which focused on 8 of the 11 molecules currently sold in France - also questions the reliability of current regulatory toxicity tests and points to an over-sensitivity to the effects of SDHIs in cells of patients with neurodegenerative disease ( Alzheimer's, ataxia of Friedrich).
"Regarding the loss of biodiversity, it is no longer a risk but a reality, they are among the most involved products because they have no specificity," said Rustin. For man, "the danger is before us", he continued, asking for the application of the "precautionary principle" in the face of a "monstrous risk taking".
For its part, the NGO Générations futures, very committed to the fight against pesticides, presented Friday the first results of an analysis based on data of the Fraud Control (DGCCRF) showing that 7.34% of the residues of pesticides found in plant foods in France in 2017 were SDHIs.
Between these results and the study, "Generations Futures calls for the application of the precautionary principle and therefore the withdrawal of marketing authorizations for products containing active substances of the family of the SDHI", according to François Veillerette, director of the NGOs.
The Health Security Agency (Anses), which had estimated in January that no health alert was immediately justified, said Friday "continue its work on the potential effects of these substances on health in real conditions of exposure" and have "asked Inserm to take into account the data in this publication, as well as other recent publications".
She estimated in a statement "risky to compare values (...) obtained in vitro under laboratory conditions with the concentrations of SDHI that could result from pesticide applications on crops", and indicates also working on "the question cumulative exposures to different SDHI fungicides via food ", on which it" will publish its results in the first half of 2020 ".
For its part, the UIPP, which represents the industrial producers of phytosanitary products, noted that ANSES "expressed very clearly reassuring opinions on the SDHI on three occasions during the last nine months".
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