The Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique face a health disaster, with one man in two likely to suffer prostate cancer as a result of prolonged use of illegal pesticides on banana plantations, the French parliament was told yesterday.

The water table, land and wildlife in the two French overseas départements will suffer for decades from contamination by chlordecone, a chemical for killing weevils, Dominique Belpomme, a Paris cancer expert, said in a study that was presented to the National Assembly. “This is an extremely serious crisis linked to the massive use of pesticides for a great many years,” he said.

Michel Barnier, the Agriculture Minister, said that the situation was “very serious” and promised to “treat the question of chlordecone with the greatest openness”. However, other officials played down the report, which was commissioned by Caribbean consumer and environmental associations, as unproven and said that there was no evidence of a health threat from chlordecone use.

The state Institute for Monitoring Health said that ethnic differences probably explained the high incidence of prostate cancer in the islands compared with France. Chlordecone was outlawed in the islands in 1993, but it was used illegally – often sprayed by aeroplanes – up to 2002.

A drop in the birthrate on the islands “stems from other causes than the impact of a health issue on the biology of reproduction,” said the institute. Christian Choupin, head of the Martinique and Guadeloupe Banana Producers’ Association, said that the report was unscientific. “One has the impression that people are dying like flies in the French Caribbean, which is far from the reality,” he said.

Island MPs – who sit in the French parliament – called for an urgent study. They were concerned to avoid a scare that could damage the tourism and banana industries upon which the islands depend. “French omertà must not be allowed to stifle this affair,” said Victorin Lurel, a Socialist MP and the president of the Guadeloupe regional council.

Louis-Joseph Manscour, a Martinique MP, said: “The situation is serious.” He called for an inquiry based on “the truth and a sense of responsibility”. Professor Belpomme said: “The tests we carried out on pesticides show there is a health disaster in the Caribbean. The word is not too strong. Martinique and Guadeloupe have literally been poisoned,” he told Le Parisien newspaper.

“The poisoning affects land and water. Chlordecone establishes itself in the soil and stays there for up to a century. As a result the food chain is contaminated, and especially water. In Martinique most water sources are polluted,” he said. The bananas themselves, however, are not said to be harmful to human health.

According to the cancer specialist, the impact on health will be “more serious than the contaminated blood scandal – in which about 4,000 French people were infected with the HIV virus in the 1980s.

“The rate of prostate cancer is major. The French Caribbean is second in the world ranking. Extrapolations show that nearly one male in two will be at risk of developing prostate cancer,” he added. However, the professor accepted that there was no scientific proof “yet” that the high cancer rate was due to the pesticide.

The excessive use of chlordecone and other pesticides also probably accounted for high rates of genital malformation and a lower fertility rate on the islands, he said.

Professor Belpomme denied that his report was alarmist and urged MPs not to stick their heads in the sand.

The French islands produce 260,000 tonnes of bananas a year, worth about €220 million (£152 million).

Island life

— Guadeloupe and Martinique, which are part of France, make it the world’s eighth largest banana exporter

— About 15 million kg (33m lb) of banana imports to Britain in 2006 came from the two islands, 1.5 per cent of the total

— 75 per cent of Britain’s bananas come from Central America and the Caribbean

— Hurricane Dean destroyed Martinique’s entire banana crop and 80 per cent of Guadeloupe's crop in August, valued together at about £80 million

— A sixth of the EU’s bananas come from former colonies

Sources: HM Customs and Excise; Defra; Banana Link

Times Recommends

• UN may halt 400-year-old 'freedom of the seas'
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone
• Gas deal on hold, but Ukraine may pay in the end