Louise Sallé 14:36 pm, April 06, 2023

In a report published on Thursday, the National Agency for Food Safety (ANSES) warns about a potentially carcinogenic pesticide detected in drinking water. The presence of a degradation product, chlorothalonil, is pointed out.

A potentially carcinogenic pesticide has been detected in drinking water, announced the National Agency for National Food Safety (ANSES) on Thursday. The presence of a degradation product, chlorothalonil, is pointed out. Chlorothalonil is a fungicide that began to be used in agriculture in the 1970s, before being banned in 2019. But some residues, called metabolites, are still present in about a third of the drinking water distributed in France.

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A fungicide banned in 2019

Scientists have finally managed to measure it. Christophe Roisin is a hydrologist at ANSES. "There are a lot of pesticides, you can't monitor them all in drinking water. Today, we have techniques that allow us to correctly search for pesticide metabolites, which was not possible a few years ago," he told Europe 1.

Île-de-France and Grand-Ouest particularly affected

The presence of this pesticide is a concern even if there is no imminent danger when ingested. "The active substance, i.e. the parent molecule, is a molecule that has been classified probably as carcinogenic. There is insufficient evidence on the degradation product found to rule out this risk. On the other hand, this work will make it possible to gradually include the monitoring of this molecule as part of a regular health control," he continues.

According to the ANSES report, the most densely populated areas are the most affected, in particular Île-de-France and Grand-Ouest.