06 avril 2023
Chlorothalonil, classified as a carcinogen, is a fungicide used in France since 1969 and banned since 2019. According to an ANSES report published on Thursday April 6, this pesticide was detected in more than half of the water distributed for consumption. human. In 34% of cases, the regulatory threshold was exceeded.
Chlorothalonil, a pesticide banned in the European Union since 2019, has contaminated the drinking water of the metropolis. According to a report by the National Health Security Agency (Anses) published on Thursday April 6, out of some 136,000 samples, taken from nearly 300 sites evenly distributed over the territory, metabolites, micromolecules, of chlorothalonil R471811 were found in more than one out of two samples. Its concentration exceeded the regulatory threshold in 34% of the samples. However, the report notes that no exceedance of the maximum health value was observed in the readings.
It was Switzerland, which, in 2019, had given the alert, having realized that metabolites of chlorothalonil R471811 were frequently present in drinking water. The fungicide residues were then included in the research campaign for emerging pollutants in drinking water regularly carried out by the ANSES hydrology laboratory in Nancy. Their presence, as well as those of 156 other pesticide residues and 57 molecules of explosives, were thus sought and measured. Like other metabolites relevant for drinking water (water intended for human consumption)”, the regulatory threshold for metabolites of chlorothalonil R471811 must not be greater than 0.1 µg/L.
Spread in the soil for almost 50 years
Used in France since 1969 to fight once morest the spread of fungi in many crops such as potatoes, vines, wheat, oats, onions… chlorothalonil was banned by the European Union in 2019.” He it is impossible to date to establish that the presence of metabolites of chlorothalonil in groundwater will not have harmful effects on human health », we read in the official journal on April 29, 2019.
Chlorothalonil SA, from which the metabolites of chlorothalonil R471811 detected in drinking water are derived, is today classified as a category 2 carcinogen, “ suspected of being carcinogenic to humans “but the European Food Safety Authority has proposed that the pesticide be moved to category 1b, ” suspected of being carcinogenic to humans ».
Pesticides present for years in the environment
In an opinion of January 26, 2022, ANSES recalled that chlorothalonil SA might be responsible for kidney tumors in rats and mice: “ The mode of action leading to these renal tumors cannot be ruled out for humans since the quantitative differences in metabolic functioning between humans and rats or mice are not sufficiently documented. “. In addition, the European health authority ” demonstrated a high risk to amphibians and fish for all uses assessed ».
Contamination of drinking water by pesticides used in agriculture is the result of runoff and infiltration of products into surface and groundwater. As specified by ANSES, ” some pesticide metabolites may remain in the environment for several years following the ban of the active substance from which they originated ».
While the massive presence of metabolites of chlorothalonil R471811 is proven, two questions arise. Do water dispensers have the means to clean the water and are these molecules as dangerous as the parent molecule chlorothalonil? For the time being, nothing indicates that they are not.
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Source : ANSES, Official Journal of the European Union
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Written by : Dorothée Duchemin – Edited by Vincent Roche
